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SONGS  OF  KABIR 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK    •    BOSTON    ■    CHICAGO    •    DALLAS 
ATLANTA   •    SAN    FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  Limited 

LONDON  •  BOMBAY  •  CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE  MACMILLAN  CO.  OF  CANADA,  Ltd. 

TORONTO 


SONGS  OF  KABIR 


TRANSLATED   BY 

RABINDRANATH  TAGORE 

AUTHOR   OP    "GITANJAU,"    ETC. 


WITH    THE   ASSISTANCE    OF 

EVELYN  UNDERHILL 


•«    .  • 

- 


Neto  fork 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

1915 

All  rights  reserved 


Copyright,  1915, 
By  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  January,  1915- 


NortoooB  $«bb 

J.  S.  Cushing  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass..  U.S.A. 


■ 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  poet  Kablr,  a  selection  from 
whose  songs  is  here  for  the  first 
time  offered  to  English  readers,  is  one 
of  the  most  interesting  personalities 
in  the  history  of  Indian  mysticism. 
Born  in  or  near  Benares,  of  Mohamme- 
dan parents,  and  probably  about  the 
year  1440,  he  became  in  early  life  a 
disciple  of  the  celebrated  Hindu  as- 
cetic Ramananda.  Ramananda  had 
brought  to  Northern  India  the  reli- 
gious revival  which  Ramanuja,  the 
great  twelfth-century  reformer  of  Brah- 
manism,  had  initiated  in  the  South. 
This  revival  was  in  part  a  reaction 
against  the  increasing  formalism  of  the 
orthodox  cult,  in  part  an  assertion  of 
the  demands  of  the  heart  as  against 


218244 


6  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

the  intense  intellectualism  of  the  Ve- 
danta  philosophy,  the  exaggerated 
monism  which  that  philosophy  pro- 
claimed. It  took  in  Ramanuja's 
preaching  the  form  of  an  ardent  per- 
sonal devotion  to  the  God  Vishnu,  as 
representing  the  personal  aspect  of  the 
Divine  Nature:  that  mystical  "reli- 
gion  of  love"  which  everywhere  makes 
its  appearance  at  a  certain  level  of 
spiritual  culture,  and  which  creeds  and 
philosophies  are  powerless  to  kill. 

Though  such  a  devotion  is  indige- 
nous in  Hinduism,  and  finds  expression 
in  some  of  the  oldest  parts  of  the  Bhaga- 
vad  Glta,  there  was  in  its  mediaeval 
revival  a  large  element  of  syncretism. 
Ramananda,  through  whom  its  spirit  is 
said  to  have  reached  Kablr,  appears  to 
have  been  a  man  of  wide  religious  cul- 
ture, and  full  of  missionary  enthusiasm. 
Living  at  the  moment  in  which  the 
impassioned  poetry  and  deep  philoso- 


INTRODUCTION  7 

phy  of  the  great  Persian  mystics,  Attar, 
Sadi,  Jalalu'ddln  RumI,  and  Hafiz, 
were  exercising  a  powerful  influence 
on  the  religious  thought  of  India,  he 
dreamed  of  reconciling  this  intense 
and  personal  Mohammedan  mysticism 
with  the  traditional  theology  of  Brah- 
manism.  Some  have  regarded  both 
these  great  religious  leaders  as  influ- 
enced also  by  Christian  thought  and 
life :  but  as  this  is  a  point  upon  which 
competent  authorities  hold  widely  di- 
vergent views,  its  discussion  is  not  at- 
tempted here.  We  may  safely  assert, 
however,  that  in  their  teachings,  two 
—  perhaps  three  —  apparently  antag- 
onistic streams  of  intense  spiritual 
culture  met,  as  Jewish  and  Hellenistic 
thought  met  in  the  early  Christian 
Church :  and  it  is  one  of  the  outstand- 
ing characteristics  of  Kabir's  genius 
that  he  was  able  in  his  poems  to  fuse 
them  into  one. 


8  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

A  great  religious  reformer,  the 
founder  of  a  sect  to  which  nearly  a 
million  northern  Hindus  still  belong, 
it  is  yet  supremely  as  a  mystical  poet 
that  Kablr  lives  for  us.  His  fate  has 
been  that  of  many  revealers  of  Reality. 
A  hater  of  religious  exclusivism,  and 
seeking  above  all  things  to  initiate  men 
into  the  liberty  of  the  children  of  God, 
his  followers  have  honoured  his  mem- 
ory by  re-erecting  in  a  new  place  the 
barriers  which  he  laboured  to  cast 
down.  But  his  wonderful  songs  sur- 
vive, the  spontaneous  expressions  of 
his  vision  and  his  love ;  and  it  is  by 
these,  not  by  the  didactic  teachings 
associated  with  his  name,  that  he  makes 
his  immortal  appeal  to  the  heart.  In 
these  poems  a  wide  range  of  mystical 
emotion  is  brought  into  play  :  from  the 
loftiest  abstractions,  the  most  other- 
worldly passion  for  the  Infinite,  to  the 
most    intimate    and    personal  realiza- 


INTRODUCTION  9 

tion  of  God,  expressed  in  homely 
metaphors  and  religious  symbols 
drawn  indifferently  from  Hindu  and 
Mohammedan  belief.  It  is  impossible 
to  say  of  their  author  that  he  was 
Brahman  or  Sufi,  Vedantist  or  Vaish- 
navite.  He  is,  as  he  says  himself, 
"At  once  the  child  of  Allah  and  of 
Ram."  That  Supreme  Spirit  Whom 
he  knew  and  adored,  and  to  Whose  joy- 
ous friendship  he  sought  to  induct  the 
souls  of  other  men,  transcended  whilst 
He  included  all  metaphysical  cate- 
gories, all  credal  definitions  ;  yet  each 
contributed  something  to  the  descrip- 
tion of  that  Infinite  and  Simple  Total- 
ity Who  revealed  Himself,  according 
to  their  measure,  to  the  faithful  lovers 
of  all  creeds. 
^  Kablr's  story  is  surrounded  by  con- 
tradictory legends,  on  none  of  which 
reliance  can  be  placed.  Some  of  these 
emanate  from  a  Hindu,  some  from  a 


10  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

Mohammedan  source,  and  claim  him  by 
turns  as  a  Sufi  and  a  Brahman  saint. 
His  name,  however,  is  practically  a 
conclusive  proof  of  Moslem  ancestry : 
and  the  most  probable  tale  is  that 
which  represents  him  as  the  actual 
or  adopted  child  of  a  Mohammedan 
weaver  of  Benares,  the  city  in  which  the 
chief  events  of  his  life  took  place. 

In  fifteenth-century  Benares  the  syn- 
cretistic  tendencies  of  Bhakti  religion 
had  reached  full  development.  Sufis 
and  Brahmans  appear  to  have  met  in 
disputation :  the  most  spiritual  mem- 
bers of  both  creeds  frequenting  the 
teachings  of  Ramananda,  whose  repu- 
tation was  then  at  its  height.  The 
boy  Kablr,  in  whom  the  religious  pas- 
sion was  innate,  saw  in  Ramananda 
his  destined  teacher;  but  knew  how 
slight  were  the  chances  that  a  Hindu 
guru  would  accept  a  Mohammedan  as 
disciple.     He   therefore   hid   upon   the 


INTRODUCTION  11 

steps  of  the  river  Ganges,  where  Rama- 
nanda  was  accustomed  to  bathe ;  with 
the  result  that  the  master,  coming 
down  to  the  water,  trod  upon  his  body 
unexpectedly,  and  exclaimed  in  his 
astonishment,  "Ram!  Ram!"  —  the 
name  of  the  incarnation  under  which  he 
worshipped  God.  Kabir  then  declared 
that  he  had  received  the  mantra  of 
initiation  from  Ramananda's  lips,  and 
was  by  it  admitted  to  discipleship.  In 
spite  of  the  protests  of  orthodox  Brah- 
mans  and  Mohammedans,  both  equally 
annoyed  by  this  contempt  of  theologi- 
cal landmarks,  he  persisted  in  his 
claim ;  thus  exhibiting  in  action  that 
very  principle  of  religious  synthesis 
which  Ramananda  had  sought  to  es- 
tablish in  thought.  Ramananda  ap- 
pears to  have  accepted  him,  and 
though  Mohammedan  legends  speak 
of  the  famous  Sufi  Plr,  Takki  of  Jhani, 
as    Kabir's    master    in    later    life,    the 


12  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

Hindu  saint  is  the  only  human  teacher 
to  whom  in  his  songs  he  acknowledges 
indebtedness. 

The  little  that  we  know  of  Kabir's 
life  contradicts  many  current  ideas 
concerning  the  Oriental  mystic.  Of 
the  stages  of  discipline  through  which 
he  passed,  the  manner  in  which  his 
spiritual  genius  developed,  we  are  com- 
pletely ignorant.  He  seems  to  have 
remained  for  years  the  disciple  of 
Ramananda,  joining  in  the  theological 
and  philosophical  arguments  which  his 
master  held  with  all  the  great  Mullahs 
and  Brahmans  of  his  day ;  and  to 
this  source  we  may  perhaps  trace  his 
acquaintance  with  the  terms  of  Hindu 
and  Sufi  philosophy.  He  may  or  may 
not  have  submitted  to  the  traditional 
education  of  the  Hindu  or  the  Sufi 
contemplative  :  it  is  clear,  at  any  rate, 
that  he  never  adopted  the  life  of  the 
professional  ascetic,  or  retired  from  the 


INTRODUCTION  13 

world  in  order  to  devote  himself  to 
bodily  mortifications  and  the  exclu- 
sive pursuit  of  the  contemplative  life. 
Side  by  side  with  his  interior  life  of 
adoration,  its  artistic  expression  in 
music  and  words  —  for  he  was  a  skilled 
musician  as  well  as  a  poet  —  he  lived 
the  sane  and  diligent  life  of  the  Orien- 
tal craftsman.  All  the  legends  agree 
on  this  point :  that  Kablr  was  a  weaver, 
a  simple  and  unlettered  man,  who 
earned  his  living  at  the  loom.  Like 
Paul  the  tentmaker,  Boehme  the  cob- 
bler, Bunyan  the  tinker,  Tersteegen 
the  ribbon-maker,  he  knew  how  to 
combine  vision  and  industry ;  the 
work  of  his  hands  helped  rather  than 
hindered  the  impassioned  meditation 
of  his  heart.  Hating  mere  bodily  aus- 
terities, he  was  no  ascetic,  but  a  mar- 
ried man,  the  father  of  a  family  —  a 
circumstance  which  Hindu  legends  of 
the  monastic  type  vainly  attempt  to 


14  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

conceal  or  explain  —  and  it  was  from 
out  of  the  heart  of  the  common  life 
that  he  sang  his  rapturous  lyrics  of 
divine  love.  Here  his  works  corrobo- 
rate the  traditional  story  of  his  life. 
Again  and  again  he  extols  the  life  of 
home,  the  value  and  reality  of  diurnal 
existence,  with  its  opportunities  for 
love  and  renunciation ;  pouring  con- 
tempt upon  the  professional  sanctity 
of  the  Yogi,  who  'has  a  great  beard 
and  matted  locks,  and  looks  like  a 
goat,"  and  on  all  who  think  it  neces- 
sary to  flee  a  world  pervaded  by  love, 
joy,  and  beauty  —  the  proper  theatre 
of  man's  quest  —  in  order  to  find  that 
One  Reality  Who  has  "  spread  His  form 
of  love  throughout  all  the  world."  J 

It  does  not  need  much  experience  of 
ascetic  literature  to  recognize  the  bold- 
ness and  originality  of  this  attitude  in 
such    a    time    and    place.     From    the 

»  Cf.  Poems  Nos.  XXI,  XL,  XLIII,  LXVI,  LXXVI. 


INTRODUCTION  15 

point  of  view  of  orthodox  sanctity, 
whether  Hindu  or  Mohammedan,  Ka- 
bir  was  plainly  a  heretic ;  and  his  frank 
dislike  of  all  institutional  religion,  all 
external  observance  —  which  was  as 
thorough  and  as  intense  as  that  of  the 
Quakers  themselves  —  completed,  so 
far  as  ecclesiastical  opinion  was  con- 
cerned, his  reputation  as  a  dangerous 
man.  The  "  simple  union  "  with  Divine 
Reality  which  he  perpetually  extolled, 
as  alike  the  duty  and  the  joy  of  every 
soul,  was  independent  both  of  ritual 
and  of  bodily  austerities ;  the  God 
whom  he  proclaimed  was  "neither  in 
Kaaba  nor  in  Kailash."  Those  who 
sought  Him  needed  not  to  go  far;  for 
He  awaited  discovery  everywhere,  more 
accessible  to  'the  washerwoman  and 
the  carpenter"  than  to  the  self-right- 
eous holy  man.1  Therefore  the  whole 
apparatus  of  piety,  Hindu  and  Moslem 

1  Poems  I,  II,  XLI. 


16  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

alike  —  the  temple  and  mosque,  idol 
and  holy  water,  scriptures  and  priests 
—  were  denounced  by  this  inconven- 
iently clear-sighted  poet  as  mere  sub- 
stitutes for  reality ;  dead  things  inter- 
vening between  the  soul  and  its  love  — 

The  images  are  all  lifeless,  they  cannot  speak : 
I  know,  for  I  have  cried  aloud  to  them. 

The  Purana  and  the  Koran  are  mere  words : 
lifting  up  the  curtain,  I  have  seen.1 

This  sort  of  thing  cannot  be  tolerated 
by  any  organized  church ;  and  it  is 
not  surprising  that  Kablr,  having  his 
head-quarters  in  Benares,  the  very 
centre  of  priestly  influence,  was  sub- 
jected to  considerable  persecution.  The 
well-known  legend  of  the  beautiful 
courtesan  sent  by  the  Brahmans  to 
tempt  his  virtue,  and  converted,  like 
the  Magdalen,  by  her  sudden  encounter 
with  the  initiate  of  a  higher  love,  pre- 
serves the  memory  of  the  fear  and  dis- 

>  Poems  XLII,  LXV,  LXVII. 


INTRODUCTION  17 

like  with  which  he  was  regarded  by  the 
ecclesiastical  powers.  Once  at  least, 
after  the  performance  of  a  supposed 
miracle  of  healing,  he  was  brought 
before  the  Emperor  Sikandar  Lodl, 
and  charged  with  claiming  the  posses- 
sion of  divine  powers.  But  Sikandar 
Lodl,  a  ruler  of  considerable  culture, 
was  tolerant  of  the  eccentricities  of 
saintly  persons  belonging  to  his  own 
faith.  Kabir,  being  of  Mohammedan 
birth,  was  outside  the  authority  of  the 
Brahmans,  and  technically  classed  with 
the  Sufis,  to  whom  great  theological 
latitude  was  allowed.  Therefore, 
though  he  was  banished  in  the  in- 
terests of  peace  from  Benares,  his  life 
was  spared.  This  seems  to  have 
happened  in  1495,  when  he  was  nearly 
sixty  years  of  age ;  it  is  the  last  event 
in  his  career  of  which  we  have  definite 
knowledge.  Thenceforth  he  appears 
to  have  moved  about  amongst  various 


18  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

cities  of  northern  India,  the  centre  of 
a  group  of  disciples ;  continuing  in 
exile  that  life  of  apostle  and  poet  of 
love  to  which,  as  he  declares  in  one  of 
his  songs,  he  was  destined  "from  the 
beginning  of  time."  In  1518,  an  old 
man,  broken  in  health,  and  with  hands 
so  feeble  that  he  could  no  longer  make 
the  music  which  he  loved,  he  died  at 
Maghar  near  Gorakhpur. 

A  beautiful  legend  tells  us  that  after 
his  death  his  Mohammedan  and  Hindu 
disciples  disputed  the  possession  of 
his  body;  which  the  Mohammedans 
wished  to  bury,  the  Hindus  to  burn. 
As  they  argued  together,  Kabir  ap- 
peared before  them,  and  told  them  to 
lift  the  shroud  and  look  at  that  which 
lay  beneath.  They  did  so,  and  found 
in  the  place  of  the  corpse  a  heap  of 
flowers ;  half  of  which  were  buried  by 
the  Mohammedans  at  Maghar,  and 
half  carried  by  the  Hindus  to  the  holy 


L_ 


r 


INTRODUCTION  19 

city  of  Benares  to  be  burned  —  fitting 
conclusion  to  a  life  which  had  made 
fragrant  the  most  beautiful  doctrines 
of  two  great  creeds. 

II 

The  poetry  of  mysticism  might  be 
defined  on  the  one  hand  as  a  tempera- 
mental reaction  to  the  vision  of  Reality : 
on  the  other,  as  a  form  of  prophecy. 
As  it  is  the  special  vocation  of  the  mys- 
tical consciousness  to  mediate  between 
two  orders,  going  out  in  loving  adora- 
tion towards  God  and  coming  home  to 
tell  the  secrets  of  Eternity  to  other 
men ;  so  the  artistic  self-expression  of 
this  consciousness  has  also  a  double 
character.  It  is  love-poetry,  but  love- 
poetry  which  is  often  written  with  a 
missionary  intention. 

Kablr's  songs  are  of  this  kind :  out- 
births  at  once  of  rapture  and  of  charity. 
Written  in  the  popular  Hindi,  not   in 


20  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

the  literary  tongue,  they  were  deliber- 
ately addressed  —  like  the  vernacular 
poetry  of  Jacopone  da  Todi  and 
Richard  Rolle  —V  to  the  people  rather 
than  to  the  professionally  religious  class  * 
and  all  must  be  struck  by  the  constant 
employment  in  them  of  imagery  drawn 
from  the  common  life,  the  universal 
experience.  It  is  by  the  simplest  meta- 
phors, by  constant  appeals  to  needs, 
passions,  relations  which  all  men  under- 
stand —  the  bridegroom  and  bride,  the 
guru  and  disciple,  the  pilgrim,  the 
farmer,  the  migrant  bird  —  that  he 
drives  home  his  intense  conviction  of 
the  reality  of  the  soul's  intercourse 
with  the  Transcendent.  There  are  in 
his  universe  no  fences  between  the 
"natural"  and  "supernatural"  worlds  ; 
everything  is  a  part  of  the  creative 
Play  of  God,  and  therefore  —  even  in 
its  humblest  details  —  capable  of  re- 
vealing the  Player's  mind. 


INTRODUCTION  21 

This  willing  acceptance  of  the  here- 
and-now  as  a  means  of  representing 
supernal  realities  is  a  trait  common  to 
the  greatest. my  sties.  For  them,  when 
they  have  achieved  at  last  the  true 
theopathetic  state,  all  aspects  of  the 
universe  possess  equal  authority  as 
sacramental  declarations  of  the 
Presence  of  God ;  and  their  fearless 
employment  of  homely  and  physical 
symbols  —  often  startling  and  even 
revolting  to  the  unaccustomed  taste 
—  is  in  direct  proportion  to  the  exalta- 
tion of  their  spiritual  life.  The  works 
of  the  great  Sufis,  and  amongst  the 
Christians  of  Jacopone  da  Todi,  Ruys- 
broeck,  Boehme,  abound  in  illustra- 
tions of  this  law.  Therefore  we  must 
not  be  surprised  to  find  in  Kabir's 
songs  —  his  desperate  attempts  to  com- 
municate his  ecstasy  and  persuade 
other  men  to  share  it  —  a  constant 
juxtaposition   of   concrete   and    meta- 


22  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

physical  language ;  swift  alternations 
between  the  most  intensely  anthropo- 
morphic, the  most  subtly  philosophical, 
ways  of  apprehending  man's  commun- 
ion with  the  Divine.  The  need  for  this 
alternation,  and  its  entire  naturalness 
for  the  mind  which  employs  it,  is  rooted 
in  his  concept,  or  vision,  of  the  Nature 
of  God ;  and  unless  we  make  some  at- 
tempt to  grasp  this,  we  shall  not  go  far 
in  our  understanding  of  his  poems. 

Kablr  belongs  to  that  small  group  of 
supreme  mystics  —  amongst  whom  St. 
Augustine,  Ruysbroeck,  and  the  Sufi 
poet  Jalalu'ddin  Rumi  are  perhaps  the 
chief  —  who  have  achieved  that  which 
we  might  call  the  synthetic  vision  of 
God.  These  have  resolved  the  per- 
petual opposition  between  the  personal 
and  impersonal,  the  transcendent  and 
immanent,  static  and  dynamic  aspects 
of  the  Divine  Nature ;  between  the 
Absolute  of  philosophy  and  the  "sure 


INTRODUCTION  23 

true  Friend"  of  devotional  religion. 
They  have  done  this,  not  by  taking 
these  apparently  incompatible  concepts 
one  after  the  other ;  but  by  ascending 
to  a  height  of  spiritual  intuition  at 
which  they  are,  as  Ruysbroeck  said, 
"melted  and  merged  in  the  Unity," 
and  perceived  as  the  completing  oppo- 
sites  of  a  perfect  Whole.  This  pro- 
ceeding entails  for  them  —  and  both 
Kabir  and  Ruysbroeck  expressly  ac- 
knowledge it  —  a  universe  of  three 
orders :  Becoming,  Being,  and  that 
which  is  "More  than  Being,"  i.e.,  God.1 
God  is  here  felt  to  be  not  the  final 
abstraction,  but  the  one  actuality. 
He  inspires,  supports,  indeed  inhabits, 
both  the  durational,  conditioned,  finite 
world  of  Becoming  and  the  uncon- 
ditioned, non-successional,  infinite 
world  of  Being ;  yet  utterly  transcends 
them    both.     He    is    the    omnipresent 

i  Nos.  VII  and  XXIX. 


24  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

Reality,  the  "All-pervading"  within 
Whom  "  the  worlds  are  being  told  like 
beads."  In  His  personal  aspect  He 
is  the  "beloved  Fakir,"  teaching  and 
companioning  each  soul.  Considered 
as  Immanent  Spirit,  He  is  "the  Mind 
within  the  mind."  But  all  these  are  at 
best  partial  aspects  of  His  nature, 
mutually  corrective  5L_as  the  Persons  in 
the  Christian  doctrine  of  the  Trinity 
—  to  which  this  theological  diagram 
bears  a  striking  resemblance  —  repre- 
sent different  and  compensating  experi- 
ences of  the  Divine  Unity  within  which 
they  are  resumed.  As  Ruysbroeck 
discerned  a  plane  of  reality  upon  which 
"  we  can  speak  no  more  of  Father,  Son, 
and  Holy  Spirit,  but  only  of  One  Being, 
the  very  substance  of  the  Divine  Per- 
sons"; so  Kablr  says  that  "beyond 
both  the  limited  and  the  limitless  is 
He,  the  Pure  Being."  l 

1  No.  VII. 


INTRODUCTION  25 

Brahma,  then,  is  the  Ineffable  Fact 
compared  with  which  "the  distinction 
of  the  Conditioned  from  the  Uncondi- 
tioned is  but  a  word":  at  once  the 
utterly  transcendent  One  of  Absolutist 
philosophy,  and  the  personal  Lover 
of  the  individual  soul  —  "common  to 
all  and  special  to  each,"  as  one  Chris- 
tian mystic  has  it.  The  need  felt  by 
Kablr  for  both  these  ways  of  describing 
Reality  is  a  proof  of  the  richness  and 
balance  of  his  spiritual  experience; 
which  neither  cosmic  nor  anthropo- 
morphic symbols,  taken  alone,  could 
express.  More  absolute  than  the  Ab- 
solute, more  personal  than  the  human 
mind,  Brahma  therefore  exceeds  whilst 
He  includes  all  the  concepts  of  phi- 
losophy, all  the  passionate  intuitions 
of  the  heart.  He  is  the  Great  Affirma- 
tion, the  font  of  energy,  the  source  of 
life  and  love,  the  unique  satisfaction 
of  desire.     His  creative  word  is  the  Om 


I 


26  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

or  "Everlasting  Yea."  The  negative 
philosophy  which  strips  from  the  Di- 
vine Nature  all  Its  attributes  and  — 
defining  Him  only  by  that  which  He  is 
not  —  reduces  Him  to  an  "Empti- 
ness," is  abhorrent  to  this  most  vital 
of  poets.  Brahma,  he  says,  "may 
never  be  found  in  abstractions."  He 
is  the  One  Love  who  pervades  the 
world,  discerned  in  His  fullness  only 
by  the  eyes  of  love ;  and  those  who 
know  Him  thus  share,  though  they 
may  never  tell,  the  joyous  and  inef- 
fable secret  of  the  universe.1 

Now  Kablr,  achieving  this  synthesis 
between  the  personal  and  cosmic  as- 
pects of  the  Divine  Nature,  eludes  the 
three  great  dangers  which  threaten 
mystical  religion. 

First,  he  escapes  the  excessive  emo- 
tionalism, the  tendency  to  an  ex- 
clusively   anthropomorphic    devotion, 

1  Nos.  VII,  XXVI,  LXXVI,  XC. 


INTRODUCTION  27 

which  results  from  an  unrestricted  cult 
of  Divine  Personality,  especially  under 
an  incarnational  form ;  seen  in  India 
in  the  exaggerations  of  Krishna  wor- 
ship, in  Europe  in  the  sentimental 
extravagances  of  certain  Christian 
saints. 

Next,  he  is  protected  from  the  soul- 
destroying  conclusions  of  pure  monism, 
inevitable  if  its  logical  implications  are 
pressed  home :  that  is,  the  identity 
of  substance  between  God  and  the  soul, 
with  its  corollary  of  the  total  absorp- 
tion of  that  soul  in  the  Being  of  God 
as  the  goal  of  the  spiritual  life.  For 
the  thorough-going  monist  the  soul, 
in  so  far  as  it  is  real,  is  substantially 
identical  with  God ;  and  the  true 
object  of  existence  is  the  making  patent 
of  this  latent  identity,  the  realization 
which  finds  expression  in  the  Vedantist 
formula  "That  art  thou."  But  Kablr 
says  that  Brahma  and  the  creature  are 


28  SONGS   OF   KABIR 

"ever  distinct,  yet  ever  united"  ;  that 
the  wise  man  knows  the  spiritual  as 
well  as  the  material  world  to  "be  no 
more  than  His  footstool."  *  The  soul's 
union  with  Him  is  a  love  union,  a  mut- 
ual inhabitation  ;  that  essentially  dual- 
istic  relation  which  all  mystical  religion 
expresses,  not  a  self-mergence  which 
leaves  no  place  for  personality.  This 
eternal  distinction,  the  mysterious 
union-in-separateness  of  God  and  the 
soul,  is  a  necessary  doctrine  of  all 
sane  mysticism ;  for  no  scheme  which 
fails  to  find  a  place  for  it  can  represent 
more  than  a  fragment  of  that  soul's 
intercourse  with  the  spiritual  world. 
Its  affirmation  was  one  of  the  distin- 
guishing features  of  the  Vaishnavite 
reformation  preached  by  Ramanuja ; 
the  principle  of  which  descended 
through  Ramananda  to  Kabir. 
Last,  the  warmly  human  and  direct 

1  Nos.  VII  and  IX. 


INTRODUCTION  29 

apprehension  of  God  as  the  supreme 
Object  of  love,  the  soul's  comrade, 
teacher,  and  bridegroom,  which  is  so 
passionately  and  frequently  expressed 
in  Kablr's  poems,  balances  and  controls 
those  abstract  tendencies  which  are  in- 
herent in  the  metaphysical  side  of  his 
vision  of  Reality  :  and  prevents  it  from 
degenerating  into  that  sterile  worship 
of  intellectual  formulae  which  became 
the  curse  of  the  Vedantist  school.  For 
the  mere  intellectualist,  as  for  the  mere 
pietist,  he  has  little  approbation.1  Love 
is  throughout  his  "absolute  sole  Lord"  : 
the  unique  source  of  the  more  abundant 
life  which  he  enjoys,  and  the  common 
factor  which  unites  the  finite  and  infi- 
nite worlds.  All  is  soaked  in  love : 
that  love  which  he  described  in  al- 
most Johannine  language  as  the 
"Form  of  God."  The  whole  of  crea- 
tion is  the  Play  of  the  Eternal  Lover; 

i  Cf.  especially  Nos.  LIX,  LXVII,  LXXV,  XC,  XCI. 


30  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

the  living,  changing,  growing  expres- 
sion of  Brahma's  love  and  joy.  As 
these  twin  passions  preside  over  the 
generation  of  human  life,  so  "beyond 
the  mists  of  pleasure  and  pain,"  Kabir 
finds  them  governing  the  creative  acts 
of  God.  His  manifestation  is  love; 
His  activity  is  joy.  Creation  springs 
from  one  glad  act  of  affirmation :  the 
Everlasting  Yea,  perpetually  uttered 
within  the  depths  of  the  Divine  Na- 
ture.1 In  accordance  with  this  con- 
cept of  the  universe  as  a  Love-Game 
which  eternally  goes  forward,  a  progres- 
sive manifestation  of  Brahma  —  one  of 
the  many  notions  which  he  adopted 
from  the  common  stock  of  Hindu  reli- 
gious ideas,  and  illuminated  by  his 
poetic  genius  —  movement,  rhythm, 
perpetual  change,  forms  an  integral 
part  of  Kablr's  vision  of  Reality. 
Though   the  Eternal  and   Absolute  is 

1  Nos.  XVII,  XXVI,  LXXVI,  LXXXII. 


INTRODUCTION  31 

ever  present  to  his  consciousness,  yet 
his  concept  of  the  Divine  Nature  is 
essentially  dynamic.  It  is  by  the  sym- 
bols of  motion  that  he  most  often  tries 
to  convey  it  to  us :  as  in  his  constant 
reference  to  dancing,  or  the  strangely 
modern  picture  of  that  Eternal  Swing 
of  the  Universe  which  is  "held  by  the 
cords  of  love."  1 

It  is  a  marked  characteristic  of  mysti- 
cal literature  that  the  great  contempla- 
tives,  in  their  effort  to  convey  to  us  the 
nature  of  their  communion  with  the 
supersensuous,  are  inevitably  driven  to 
employ  some  form  of  sensuous  imagery  : 
coarse  and  inaccurate  as  they  know 
such  imagery  to  be,  even  at  the  best. 
Our  normal  human  consciousness  is  so 
completely  committed  to  dependence 
on  the  senses,  that  the  fruits  of  intui- 
tion itself  are  instinctively  referred  to 
them.      In    that    intuition    it    seems 

1  No.  XVI. 


32  SONGS   OF  KABIR 

to  the  mystics  that  all  the  dim  crav- 
ings and  partial  apprehensions  of 
sense  find  perfect  fulfilment.  Hence 
their  constant  declaration  that  they  see 
the  uncreated  light,  they  hear  the  celes- 
tial melody,  they  taste  the  sweetness 
of  the  Lord,  they  know  an  ineffable 
fragrance,  they  feel  the  very  contact  of 
love.  "Him  verily  seeing  and  fully 
feeling,  Him  spiritually  hearing  and 
Him  delectably  smelling  and  sweetly 
swallowing,"  as  Julian  of  Norwich  has 
it.  In  those  amongst  them  who  de- 
velop psycho-sensorial  automatisms, 
these  parallels  between  sense  and  spirit 
may  present  themselves  to  conscious- 
ness in  the  form  of  hallucinations :  as 
the  light  seen  by  Suso,  the  music  heard 
by  Rollc,  the  celestial  perfumes  which 
filled  St.  Catherine  of  Siena's  cell,  the 
physical  wounds  felt  by  St.  Francis 
and  St.  Teresa.  These  are  excessive 
dramatizations  of  the  symbolism  under 


INTRODUCTION  33 

which  the  mystic  tends  instinctively 
to  represent  his  spiritual  intuition  to 
the  surface  consciousness.  Here,  in 
the  special  sense-perception  which  he 
feels  to  be  most  expressive  of  Reality, 
his  peculiar  idiosyncrasies  come  out. 

Now  Kabir,  as  we  might  expect  in 
one  whose  reactions  to  the  spiritual 
order  were  so  wide  and  various,  uses 
by  turn  all  the  symbols  of  sense.  He 
tells  us  that  he  has  "seen  without 
sight"  the  effulgence  of  Brahma,  tasted 
the  divine  nectar,  felt  the  ecstatic  con- 
tact of  Reality,  smelt  the  fragrance  of 
the  heavenly  flowers.  But  he  was 
essentially  a  poet  and  musician : 
rhythm  and  harmony  were  to  him  the 
garments  of  beauty  and  truth.  Hence 
in  his  lyrics  he  shows  himself  to  be, 
like  Richard  Rolle,  above  all  things  a 
musical  mystic.  Creation,  he  says 
again  and  again,  is  full  of  music :  it  is 
music.     At  the  heart  of  the  Universe 


34  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

"white  music  is  blossoming":  love 
weaves  the  melody,  whilst  renunciation 
beats  the  time.  It  can  be  heard  in  the 
home  as  well  as  in  the  heavens ;  dis- 
cerned by  the  ears  of  common  men  as 
well  as  by  the  trained  senses  of  the 
ascetic.  Moreover,  the  body  of  every 
man  is  a  lyre  on  which  Brahma,  "the 
source  of  all  music,"  plays.  Every- 
where Kablr  discerns  the  'Unstruck 
Music  of  the  Infinite"  —  that  celestial 
melody  which  the  angel  played  to  St. 
Francis,  that  ghostly  symphony  which 
filled  the  soul  of  Rolle  with  ecstatic  joy.1 
The  one  figure  which  he  adopts  from 
the  Hindu  Pantheon  and  constantly 
uses,  is  that  of  Krishna  the  Divine 
Flute  Player.2  He  sees  the  supernal 
music,  too,  in  its  visual  embodiment,  as 
rhythmical  movement :  that  mysteri- 
ous dance  of  the  universe  before   the 

'Nos.  XVII.  XVIII,  XXXIX,   XLI,  LIV,  LXXVI, 
LXXXIII,  LXXXIX,  XCVII.      2  Nos.  L,  LIII,  LXVIII. 


INTRODUCTION  35 

face  of  Brahma,  which  is  at  once  an 
act  of  worship,  and  an  expression  of  the 
infinite  rapture  of  the  Immanent  God.1 
Yet  in  this  wide  and  rapturous  vision 
of  the  universe  Kablr  never  loses  touch 
with  diurnal  existence,  never  forgets 
the  common  life.  His  feet  are  firmly 
planted  upon  earth ;  his  lofty  and  pas- 
sionate apprehensions  are  perpetually 
controlled  by  the  activity  of  a  sane  and 
vigorous  intellect,  by  the  alert  common- 
sense  so  often  found  in  persons  of  real 
mystical  genius.  The  constant  insist- 
ence on  simplicity  and  directness,  the 
hatred  of  all  abstractions  and  philoso- 
phisings,2  the  ruthless  criticism  of  ex- 
ternal religion :  these  are  amongst  his 
most  marked  characteristics.  God  is 
the  Root  whence  all  manifestations, 
"material"  and  "spiritual,"  alike  pro- 
ceed ;    and  God  is  the  only  need  of 

»  Nos.  XXVI,  XXXII,  LXXVI. 

2  Nos.  LXXV,  LXXVIII,  LXXX,  XC. 


36  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

man  —  "happiness  shall  be  yours  when 
you  come  to  the  Root."  1  Hence  to 
those  who  keep  their  eye  on  the  "one 
thing  needful,"  denominations,  creeds, 
ceremonies,  the  conclusions  of  philos- 
ophy, the  disciplines  of  asceticism,  are 
matters  of  comparative  indifference. 
They  represent  merely  the  different 
angles  from  which  the  soul  may  ap- 
proach that  simple  union  with  Brahma 
which  is  its  goal ;  and  are  useful  only 
in  so  far  as  they  contribute  to  this 
consummation.  So  thorough-going  is 
Kablr's  eclecticism,  that  he  seems  by 
turns  Vedantist  and  Vaishnavite,  Pan- 
theist  and  Transcendentalist,  Brahman 
and  Sufi.  In  the  effort  to  tell  the 
truth  about  that  ineffable  apprehension, 
so  vast  and  yet  so  near,  which  controls 
his  life,  he  seizes  and  twines  together 
—  as  he  might  have  woven  together 
contrasting  threads  upon  his  loom  — 

«  No.  LXXX. 


INTRODUCTION  37 

symbols  and  ideas  drawn  from  the  most 
violent  and  conflicting  philosophies  and 
faiths.  All  are  needed  if  he  is  ever  to 
suggest  the  character  of  that  One 
whom  the  Upanishad  called  "the  Sun- 
coloured  Being  who  is  beyond  this 
Darkness":  as  all  the  colours  of  the 
spectrum  are  needed  if  we  would  dem- 
onstrate the  simple  richness  of  white 
light.  In  thus  adapting  traditional 
materials  to  his  own  use,  he  follows  a 
method  common  amongst  the  mystics ; 
who  seldom  exhibit  any  special  love 
for  originality  of  form.  They  will  pour 
their  wine  into  almost  any  vessel  that 
comes  to  hand :  generally  using  by 
preference  —  and  lifting  to  new  levels 
of  beauty  and  significance  —  the  re- 
ligious or  philosophic  formulae  current 
in  their  own  day.  Thus  we  find  that 
some  of  Kabir's  finest  poems  have  as 
their  subjects  the  commonplaces  of 
Hindu   philosophy   and   religion:     the 


38  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

Llla  or  Sport  of  God,  the  Ocean  of 
Bliss,  the  Bird  of  the  Soul,  Maya,  the 
Hundred-petalled  Lotus,  and  the 
"Formless  Form."  Many,  again,  are 
soaked  in  Sufi  imagery  and  feeling. 
Others  use  as  their  material  the  ordi- 
nary surroundings  and  incidents  of 
Indian  life :  the  temple  bells,  the  cere- 
mony of  the  lamps,  marriage,  suttee, 
pilgrimage,  the  characters  of  the 
seasons;  all  felt  by  him  in  their 
mystical  aspect,  as  sacraments  of  the 
soul's  relation  with  Brahma.  In  many 
of  these  a  particularly  beautiful  and 
intimate  feeling  for  Nature  is  shown, 


i 


In  the  collection  of  songs  here  trans- 
lated, there  will  be  found  examples  which 
illustrate  nearly  every  aspect  of  Kablr's 
thought,  and  all  the  fluctuations  of 
the  mystic's  emotion  :  the  ecstasy,  the 
despair,  the  still  beatitude,  the  eager 
self-devotion,  the  flashes  of  wide  illumi- 

1  No8.  XV,  XXIII,  LXYII,  LXXXVII,  XCVIII. 


INTRODUCTION  39 

nation,  the  moments  of  intimate  love. 
His  wide  and  deep  vision  of  the  uni- 
verse, the  "Eternal  Sport"  of  creation 
(LXXXII),  the  worlds  being  "told  like 
beads"  within  the  Being  of  God  (XIV, 
XVI,  XVII,  LXXVI),  is  here  seen  bal- 
anced by  his  lovely  and  delicate  sense  of 
intimate  communion  with  the  Divine 
Friend,  Lover,  Teacher  of  the  soul 
(X,  XI,  XXIII,  XXXV,  LI,  LXXXV, 
LXXXVI,  LXXXVIII,  XCII,  XCIII; 
above  all,  the  beautiful  poem  XXXIV) . 
As  these  apparently  paradoxical  views 
of  Reality  are  resolved  in  Brahma, 
so  all  other  opposites  are  reconciled 
in  Him  :  bondage  and  liberty,  love  and 
renunciation,  pleasure  and  pain  (XVII, 
XXV,  XL,  LXXXIX).  Union  with 
Him  is  the  one  thing  that  matters  to 
the  soul,  its  destiny  and  its  need  (LI, 
LII,  LIV,  LXX,  LXXIV,  XCIII, 
XCVI) ;  and  this  union,  this  discovery 
of  God,  is  the  simplest  and  most  natural 


40  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

of  all  things  if  we  would  but  grasp  it 
(XLI,  XLVI,  LVI,  LXXII,  LXXVI, 
LXXVIII,  XCVII).  The  union,  how- 
ever, is  brought  about  by  love,  not  by 
knowledge  or  ceremonial  observances 
(XXXVIII,  LIV,  LV,  LIX,  XCI); 
and  the  apprehension  which  that  union 
confers  is  ineffable  —  "neither  This 
nor  That,"  as  Ruysbroeck  has  it  (IX, 
XLVI,  LXXVI).  Real  worship  and 
communion  is  in  Spirit  and  in  Truth 
(XL,  XLI,  LVI,  LXIII,  LXV,  LXX), 
therefore  idolatry  is  an  insult  to  the 
Divine  Lover  (XLII,  LXIX)  and  the 
devices  of  professional  sanctity  are 
useless  apart  from  charity  and  purity 
of  soul  (LIV,  LXV,  LXVI).  Since  all 
things,  and  especially  the  heart  of 
man,  are  God-inhabited,  God-possessed 
(XXVI,  LVI,  LXXVI,  LXXXIX, 
XCVII),  He  may  best  be  found  in  the 
here-and-now :  in  the  normal,  human, 
bodily  existence,  the  "mud"  of  material 


INTRODUCTION  41 

life  (III,  IV,  VI,  XXI,  XXXIX,  XL, 
XLIII,  XL VIII,  LXXII).     "We  can 

reach  the  goal  without  crossing  the 
road"  (LXXVI)  —  not  the  cloister  but 
the  home  is  the  proper  theatre  of  man's 
efforts :  and  if  he  cannot  find  God 
there,  he  need  not  hope  for  success  by 
going  farther  afield.  "In  the  home  is 
reality."  There  love  and  detachment, 
bondage  and  freedom,  joy  and  pain  play 
by  turns  upon  the  soul ;  and  it  is  from 
their  conflict  that  the  Unstruck  Music 
of  the  Infinite  proceeds.  "Kabir  says  : 
None  but  Brahma  can  evoke  its 
melodies." 

Ill 

This  version  of  Kablr's  songs  is 
chiefly  the  work  of  Mr.  Rabindranath 
Tagore,  the  trend  of  whose  mystical 
genius  makes  him  —  as  all  who  read 
these  poems  will  see  —  a  peculiarly 
sympathetic     interpreter     of     Kablr's 


42  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

vision  and  thought.  It  has  been  based 
upon  the  printed  Hindi  text  with 
Bengali  translation  of  Mr.  Kshiti  Mo- 
han Sen ;  who  has  gathered  from  many 
sources  —  sometimes  from  books  and 
manuscripts,  sometimes  from  the  lips 
of  wandering  ascetics  and  minstrels  — 
a  large  collection  of  poems  and  hymns 
to  which  Kablr's  name  is  attached,  and 
carefully  sifted  the  authentic  songs 
from  the  many  spurious  works  now 
attributed  to  him.  These  painstaking 
labours  alone  have  made  the  present 
undertaking  possible. 

We  have  also  had  before  us  a  manu- 
script English  translation  of  116  songs 
made  by  Mr.  Ajit  Kumar  Chakravarty 
from  Mr.  Kshiti  Mohan  Sen's  text, 
and  a  prose  essay  upon  Kabir  from 
the  same  hand.  From  these  we  have 
derived  great  assistance.  A  consider- 
able number  of  readings  from  the 
translation  have  been  adopted  by  us ; 


INTRODUCTION  43 

whilst  several  of  the  facts  mentioned 
in  the  essay  have  been  incorporated 
into  this  introduction.  Our  most  grate- 
ful thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  A  jit  Kumar 
Chakravarty  for  the  extremely  gener- 
ous and  unselfish  manner  in  which  he 
has  placed  his  work  at  our  disposal. 

E.  U. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR 

1  y 

I.  13.     mo  ko  kahdnd  hunro  vande 

O     SERVANT,    where   dost    thou 
seek  Me  ? 
Lo  !  I  am  beside  thee. 
I  am  neither  in  temple  nor  in  mosque : 

I    am   neither   in    Kaaba   nor   in 

Kailash : 
Neither  am  I  in  rites  and  ceremonies, 

nor  in  Yoga  and  renunciation. 
If  thou  art  a  true  seeker,  thou  shalt  at 

once  see  Me :  thou  shalt  meet  Me 

in  a  moment  of  time. 
Kabir  says,   "O  Sadhu !    God  is  the 

breath  of  all  breath." 

n 

I.  16.    Santan  jdt  na  pucho  nirguniydn 

IT  is  needless  to  ask  of  a  saint  the 
caste  to  which  he  belongs ; 

45 


46  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

For  the  priest,  the  warrior,  the  trades- 
man, and  all  the  thirty-six  castes, 
alike  are  seeking  for  God. 

It  is  but  folly  to  ask  what  the  caste  of 
a  saint  may  be  ; 

The  barber  has  sought  God,  the  washer- 
woman, and  the  carpenter  — 

Even  Raidas  was  a  seeker  after  God. 

The  Rishi  Swapacha  was  a  tanner  by 
caste. 

Hindus  and  Moslems  alike  have 
achieved  that  End,  where  remains 
no  mark  of  distinction. 

Ill 

I.  57.     sddho  bhdl,  jlvat  hi  karo  dsd 

O  FRIEND  !  hope  for  Him  whilst 
you  live,  know  whilst  you  live, 
understand  whilst  you  live :  for 
in  life  deliverance  abides. 
If  your  bonds  be  not  broken  whilst 
living,  what  hope  of  deliverance 
in  death? 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  47 

It  is  but  an  empty  dream,  that  the  soul 
shall  have  union  with  Him  because 
it  has  passed  from  the  body : 

If  He  is  found  now,  He  is  found  then, 

If  not,  we  do  but  go  to  dwell  in  the  City 
of  Death. 

If  you  have  union  now,  you  shall  have 
it  hereafter. 

Bathe  in  the  truth,  know  the  true  Guru, 
have  faith  in  the  true  Name ! 

Kabir  says:  "It  is  the  Spirit  of  the 
quest  which  helps ;  I  am  the  slave 
of  this  Spirit  of  the  quest." 

IV 

I.  58.     bdgo  nd  jd  re  nd  jd 

DO  not  go  to  the  garden  of  flowers  ! 
O  Friend  !  go  not  there ; 
In  your  body  is  the  garden  of  flowers. 
Take  your  seat  on  the  thousand  petals 
of  the  lotus,  and  there  gaze  on  the 
Infinite  Beauty. 


48  SONGS  OF   KABIR       jU<U' 


I.  63.     avadhvhndyd  tajl  na  jdi 

TELL  me,  brother,  how  can       re- 
nounce Maya? 
When  I  gave  up  the  tying  of  ribbons, 

still  I  tied  my  garment  about  me : 
When  I  gave  up  tying  my  garment, 

still  I  covered  my  body  in  its  folds. 
So,  when  I  give  up  passion,  I  see  that 

anger  remains ; 
And  when  I  renounce  anger,  greed  is 

with  me  still ; 
And  when  greed  is  vanquished,  pride 

and  vainglory  remain ; 
When  the  mind  is  detached  and  casts 

Maya  away,  still  it  clings  to  the 

letter. 
Kabir  says,  "Listen  to  me,  dear  Sadhu  ! 

the  true  path  is  rarely  found." 


SONGS   OF   KABIR  49 

VI 

I.  83.     candd  jhalkai  yahi  ghat  mdhln 

THE  moon  shines  in  my  body,  but 
my  blind  eyes  cannot  see  it : 
The  moon  is  within  me,  and  so  is  the 

sun. 
The    unstruck    drum    of    Eternity    is 
sounded  within  me;  but  my  deaf 
ears  cannot  hear  it. 

So  long  as  man  clamours  for  the  /  and 

the  Mine,  his  works  are  as  naught : 
When  all  love  of  the  I  and  the  Mine  is 

dead,  then  the  work  of  the  Lord 

is  done. 
For  work  has  no  other  aim  than  the 

getting  of  knowledge : 
When  that  comes,  then  work  is  put 

away. 

The  flower  blooms  for  the  fruit :   when 
the  fruit  comes,  the  flower  withers. 


50  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

The  musk  is  in  the  deer,  but  it  seeks  it 
not  within  itself:  it  wanders  in 
quest  of  grass. 

VII 

I.  85.     Sddho,  Brahm  alakh  lakhdyd 

WHEN  He  Himself  reveals  Him- 
self, Brahma  brings  into  mani- 
festation That  which  can  never  be 
seen. 

As  the  seed  is  in  the  plant,  as  the  shade 
is  in  the  tree,  as  the  void  is  in  the 
sky,  as  infinite  forms  are  in  the 
void  — 

So  from  beyond  the  Infinite,  the  Infi- 
nite comes  ;  and  from  the  Infinite 
the  finite  extends. 

The  creature  is  in  Brahma,  and  Brahma 
is  in  the  creature :  they  are  ever 
distinct,  yet  ever  united. 

He  Himself  is  the  tree,  the  seed,  and 
the  germ. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  51 

He  Himself  is  the  flower,  the  fruit,  and 
the  shade. 

He  Himself  is  the  sun,  the  light,  and 
the  lighted. 

He  Himself  is  Brahma,  creature,  and 
Maya. 

He  Himself  is  the  manifold  form,  the 
infinite  space ; 

He  is  the  breath,  the  word,  and  the 
meaning. 

He  Himself  is  the  limit  and  the  limit- 
less :  and  beyond  both  the  limited 
and  the  limitless  is  He,  the  Pure 
Being. 

He  is  the  Immanent  Mind  in  Brahma 
and  in  the  creature. 

The  Supreme  Soul  is  seen  within  the 

soul, 
The  Point  is  seen  within  the  Supreme 

Soul, 
And  within  the  Point,  the  reflection  is 

seen  again. 


52  SONGS   OF   KABIR 

Kabir  is  blest  because  he  has  this 
supreme  vision  ! 

VIII 

I.  101.     is  ghat  antar  bag  baglce 

WITHIN  this  earthen  vessel  are 
bowers  and  groves,  and  within 
it  is  the  Creator : 

Within  this  vessel  are  the  seven  oceans 
and  the  unnumbered  stars. 

The  touchstone  and  the  jewel-ap- 
praiser are  within ; 

And  within  this  vessel  the  Eternal 
soundeth,  and  the  spring  wells  up. 

Kabir  says  :  "Listen  to  me,  my  Friend  ! 
My  beloved  Lord  is  within." 

IX 

I.  104.     aisd  lo  nahin  taisd  lo 

OHOW  may  I  ever   express  that 
secret  word  ? 
O  how  can  I  say  He  is  not  like  this,  and 
He  is  like  that  ? 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  53 

If  I  say  that  He  is  within  me,  the  uni- 
verse is  ashamed : 
If  I  say  that  He  is  without  me,  it  is 

falsehood. 
He   makes    the   inner   and   the   outer 

worlds  to  be  indivisibly  one ; 
The    conscious    and    the    unconscious, 

both  are  His  footstools. 
He  is  neither  manifest  nor  hidden,  he 

is     neither     revealed     nor  unre- 

vealed : 
There  are  no  words  to  tell  that  which 

He  is. 

X 

I.  121.     tohi  mori  lagan  lag  dye  re 
phakir  wd 

TO  Thee  Thou  hast  drawn  my  love, 
O  Fakir ! 
I  was  sleeping  in  my  own  chamber,  and 
Thou  didst  awaken   me;    striking 
me  with  Thy  voice,  O  Fakir ! 
I  was   drowning  in   the  deeps   of  the 


54  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

ocean  of  this  world,  and  Thou 
didst  save  me :  upholding  me 
with  Thine  arm,  O  Fakir ! 

Only  one  word  and  no  second  —  and 
Thou  hast  made  me  tear  off  all 
my  bonds,  0  Fakir  ! 

Kabir  says,  "Thou  hast  united  Thy 
heart  to  my  heart,  O  Fakir !" 

XI 

I.  131.     nis  din  khelat  rahl  sakhiyan 

sang 

1  PLAYED  day  and  night  with  my 
comrades,  and  now  I  am  greatly 
afraid. 

So  high  is  my  Lord's  palace,  my  heart 
trembles  to  mount  its  stairs :  yet 
I  must  not  be  shy,  if  I  would  enjoy 
His  love. 

My  heart  must  cleave  to  my  Lover; 
I  must  withdraw  my  veil,  and 
meet  Him  with  all  my  body : 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  55 

Mine  eyes  must  perform  the  ceremony 
of  the  lamps  of  love. 

Kabir  says  :  "Listen  to  me,  friend  :  he 
understands  who  loves.  If  you 
feel  not  love's  longing  for  your 
Beloved  One,  it  is  vain  to  adorn 
your  body,  vain  to  put  unguent 
on  your  eyelids." 

XII 

II.  24.     hamsd,  kaho  purdtan  vat 

TELL  me,  O  Swan,   your   ancient 
tale. 
From  what  land  do  you  come,  O  Swan  ? 

to  what  shore  will  you  fly  ? 
Where  would  you   take  your   rest,  O 
Swan,  and  what  do  you  seek  ? 

Even  this  morning,  O  Swan,  awake, 

arise,  follow  me ! 
There  is  a  land  where  no  doubt  nor 

sorrow  have  rule  :  where  the  terror 

of  Death  is  no  more. 


56  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

There  the  woods  of  spring  are  a-bloom, 
and  the  fragrant  scent  "He  is  Me" 
is  borne  on  the  wind  : 

There  the  bee  of  the  heart  is  deeply 
immersed,  and  desires  no  other  joy. 

XIII 

II.  37.     anagadhiyd  devd 

OLORD  Increate,  who  will  serve 
Thee  ? 
Every  votary  offers  his  worship  to  the 

God  of  his  own  creation  :  each  day 

he  receives  service  — 
None  seek  Him,  the  Perfect :   Brahma, 

the  Indivisible  Lord. 
They  believe  in  ten  Avatars;    but  no 

Avatar  can  be  the  Infinite  Spirit, 

for   he   suffers   the   results   of   his 

deeds : 
The  Supreme  One  must  be  other  than 

this. 
The  Yogi,  the  Sanyasi,  the  Ascetics, 

are  disputing  one  with  another  : 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  57 

Kabir  says,  "  O  brother !  he  who  has 
seen  that  radiance  of  love,  he  is 
saved." 

XIV 

II.  56.     dariyd  ki  lahar  dariydo  hai  ji 

THE  river  and  its  waves  are   one 
surf:     where    is    the    difference 

between  the  river  and  its  waves  ? 
When  the  wave  rises,  it  is  the  water; 

and  when  it  falls,  it  is  the  same 

water  again.     Tell  me,  Sir,  where 

is  the  distinction  ? 
Because  it  has  been  named  as  wave, 

shall  it  no  longer  be  considered  as 

water  ? 

Within  the  Supreme  Brahma,  the 
worlds  are  being  told  like  beads : 

Look  upon  that  rosary  with  the  eyes  of 
wisdom. 


58  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

XV 

II.  57.    janh  khelat  vasant  riturdj 

WHERE  Spring,  the  lord   of   the 
seasons,    reigneth,    there    the 

Unstruck  Music  sounds  of  itself, 
There  the  streams  of  light  flow  in  all 

directions ; 
Few  are  the  men  who  can  cross  to  that 

shore ! 
There,  where  millions  of  Krishnas  stand 

with  hands  folded, 
Where  millions  of  Vishnus  bow  their 

heads, 
Where  millions  of  Brahmas  are  reading 

the  Vedas, 
Where  millions  of  Shivas  are  lost  in 

contemplation, 
Where  millions  of  Indras  dwell  in  the  sky, 
Where  the  demi-gods  and  the  munis 

are  unnumbered, 
Where  millions  of  Saras watis,  Goddess 

of  Music,  play  on  the  vina  — 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  59 

There  is  my  Lord  self -revealed :  and 
the  scent  of  sandal  and  flowers 
dwells  in  those  deeps. 

XVI 

II.  59.     janh  cet  acet  khambh  dou 

BETWEEN  the  poles  of  the  con- 
scious and  the  unconscious,  there 

has  the  mind  made  a  swing : 
Thereon  hang  all  beings  and  all  worlds, 

and   that   swing   never   ceases   its 

sway. 
Millions  of  beings  are  there :    the  sun 

and  the  moon  in  their  courses  are 

there : 
Millions  of  ages  pass,  and  the   swing 

goes  on. 
All  swing !    the  sky  and  the  earth  and 

the  air  and  the  water ;    and  the 

Lord  Himself  taking  form  : 
And  the  sight  of  this  has  made  Kabir 

a  servant. 


60  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

XVII 

II.   61.     grah  candra  tapanjot  varat  hai 

THE  light  of  the  sun,  the  moon,  and 
the  stars  shines  bright : 
The  melody  of  love  swells  forth,  and 
the  rhythm  of  love's  detachment 
beats  the  time. 
Day  and  night,  the  chorus  of  music  fills 

the  heavens  ;   and  Kabir  says, 
"  My    Beloved    One    gleams    like    the 
lightning  flash  in  the  sky." 

Do  you  know  how  the  moments  per- 
form their  adoration  ? 

Waving  its  row  of  lamps,  the  universe 
sings  in  worship  day  and  night, 

There  are  the  hidden  banner  and  the 
secret  canopy : 

There  the  sound  of  the  unseen  bells  is 
heard. 

Kabir  says:  "There  adoration  never 
ceases  ;  there  the  Lord  of  the  Uni- 
verse sitteth  on  His  throne." 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  61 

The  whole  world  does  its  works  and 
commits  its  errors:  but  few  are 
the  lovers  who  know  the  Beloved. 

The  devout  seeker  is  he  who  mingles 
in  his  heart  the  double  currents  of 
love  and  detachment,  like  the 
mingling  of  the  streams  of  Ganges 
and  Jumna ; 

In  his  heart  the  sacred  water  flows  day 
and  night ;  and  thus  the  round  of 
births  and  deaths  is  brought  to  an 
end. 

Behold  what  wonderful  rest  is  in  the 
Supreme  Spirit !  and  he  enjoys  it, 
who  makes  himself  meet  for  it. 

Held  by  the  cords  of  love,  the  swing  of 
the  Ocean  of  Joy  sways  to  and  fro  ; 
and  a  mighty  sound  breaks  forth 
in  song. 

See  what  a  lotus  blooms  there  without 
water  !   and  Kabir  says 

"My  heart's  bee  drinks  its  nectar." 


62  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

What  a  wonderful  lotus  it  is,  that 
blooms  at  the  heart  of  the  spinning 
wheel  of  the  universe !  Only  a 
few  pure  souls  know  of  its  true 
delight. 

Music  is  all  around  it,  and  there  the 
heart  partakes  of  the  joy  of  the 
Infinite  Sea. 

Kabir  says:  "Dive  thou  into  that 
Ocean  of  sweetness :  thus  let  all 
errors  of  life  and  of  death  flee 
away." 

Behold  how  the  thirst  of  the  five  senses 
is  quenched  there !  and  the  three 
forms  of  misery  are  no  more ! 

Kabir  says :  "  It  is  the  sport  of  the 
Unattainable  One :  look  within, 
and  behold  how  the  moon-beams 
of  that  Hidden  One  shine  in  you." 

There  falls  the  rhythmic  beat  of  life 
and  death : 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  63 

Rapture  wells  forth,  and  all  space  is 
radiant  with  light. 

There  the  Unstruck  Music  is  sounded ; 
it  is  the  music  of  the  love  of  the 
three  worlds. 

There  millions  of  lamps  of  sun  and  of 
moon  are  burning ; 

There  the  drum  beats,  and  the  lover 
swings  in  play. 

There  love-songs  resound,  and  light 
rains  in  showers ;  and  the  wor- 
shipper is  entranced  in  the  taste 
of  the  heavenly  nectar. 

Look  upon  life  and  death ;  there  is  no 
separation  between  them, 

The  right  hand  and  the  left  hand  are 
one  and  the  same. 

Kabir  says:  "There  the  wise  man  is 
speechless  ;  for  this  truth  may  never 
be  found  in  Vedas  or  in  books." 

I  have  had  my  Seat  on  the  Self-poised 
One, 


64  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

I  have  drunk  of  the  Cup  of  the  In- 
effable, 

I  have  found  the  Key  of  the  Mystery, 

I  have  reached  the  Root  of  Union. 

Travelling  by  no  track,  I  have  come 
to  the  Sorrowless  Land :  very 
easily  has  the  mercy  of  the  great 
Lord  come  upon  me. 

They  have  sung  of  Him  as  infinite  and 
unattainable :  but  I  in  my  medi- 
tations have  seen  Him  without 
sight. 

That  is  indeed  the  sorrowless  land,  and 
none  know  the  path  that  leads 
there : 

Only  he  who  is  on  that  path  has  surely 
transcended  all  sorrow. 

Wonderful  is  that  land  of  rest,  to  which 
no  merit  can  win ; 

It  is  the  wise  who  has  seen  it,  it  is  the 
wise  who  has  sung  of  it. 

This  is  the  Ultimate  Word :  but  can 
any  express  its  marvellous  savour  ? 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  65 

He  who  has  savoured  it  once,  he 

knows  what  joy  it  can  give. 
Kabir  says  :  "Knowing  it,  the  ignorant 

man  becomes  wise,  and  the  wise 

man  becomes  speechless  and  silent, 
The  worshipper  is  utterly  inebriated, 
His   wisdom  and   his   detachment  are 

made  perfect ; 
He   drinks    from   the   cup   of    the   in- 

breathings  and  the  outbreathings 

of  love." 

There  the  whole  sky  is  filled  with 
sound,  and  there  that  music  is 
made  without  fingers  and  without 
strings ; 

There  the  game  of  pleasure  and  pain 
does  not  cease. 

Kabir  says:  "If  you  merge  your  life 
in  the  Ocean  of  Life,  you  will  find 
your  life  in  the  Supreme  Land  of 
Bliss." 

What  a  frenzy  of  ecstasy  there  is  in 


66  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

every  hour  !  and  the  worshipper  is 
pressing  out  and  drinking  the 
essence  of  the  hours :  he  lives  in 
the  life  of  Brahma. 

I  speak  truth,  for  I  have  accepted  truth 
in  life ;  I  am  now  attached  to 
truth,  I  have  swept  all  tinsel  away. 

Kabir  says:  "Thus  is  the  worshipper 
set  free  from  fear;  thus  have  all 
errors  of  life  and  of  death  left 
him." 

There  the  sky  is  filled  with  music : 

There  it  rains  nectar : 

There  the  harp-strings  jingle,  and  there 

the  drums  beat. 
What  a  secret  splendour  is  there,  in 

the  mansion  of  the  sky  ! 
There  no  mention  is  made  of  the  rising 

and  the  setting  of  the  sun ; 
In  the  ocean  of  manifestation,  which  is 

the  light  of  love,  day  and  night 

are  felt  to  be  one. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  67 

Joy  for  ever,  no  sorrow,  no  struggle ! 
There  have  I  seen  joy  filled  to  the  brim, 

perfection  of  joy ; 
No  place  for  error  is  there. 
Kabir  says:    "There  have  I  witnessed 

the  sport  of  One  Bliss  !" 

I  have  known  in  my  body  the  sport  of 
the  universe  :  I  have  escaped  from 
the  error  of  this  world. 

The  inward  and  the  outward  are  be- 
come as  one  sky,  the  Infinite  and 
the  finite  are  united  :  I  am  drunken 
with  the  sight  of  this  All ! 

This  Light  of  Thine  fulfils  the  uni- 
verse :  the  lamp  of  love  that  burns 
on  the  salver  of  knowledge. 

Kabir  says  :  "  There  error  cannot  enter, 
and  the  conflict  of  life  and  death 
is  felt  no  more.'* 


68  SONGS   OF   KABIR 

XVIII 

II.  77.     maddh  dkds  dp  jahan  baithe 

THE  middle  region  of  the  sky, 
wherein  the  spirit  dwelleth,  is 
radiant  with  the  music  of  light ; 

There,  where  the  pure  and  white  music 
blossoms,  my  Lord  takes  His  de- 
light. 

In  the  wondrous  effulgence  of  each  hair 
of  His  body,  the  brightness  of  mill- 
ions of  suns  and  of  moons  is  lost. 

On  that  shore  there  is  a  city,  where  the 
rain  of  nectar  pours  and  pours,  and 
never  ceases. 

Kabir  says:  "Come,  O  Dharmadas  ! 
and  see  my  great  Lord's  Durbar." 

XIX 

II.  20.     paramdtam  guru  nikat  virdjain 

OMY  heart !    the  Supreme  Spirit, 
the  great  Master,  is   near  you : 
wake,  oh  wake ! 
Run  to  the  feet  of  your  Beloved :    for 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  69 

your   Lord   stands   near   to   your 
head. 
You  have  slept  for  unnumbered  ages ; 
this  morning  will  you  not  wake? 

XX 

II.  22.     man  tu  par  utar  kanh  jaihau 

TO  what  shore  would  you  cross,  O 
my  heart?  there  is  no  traveller 
before  you,  there  is  no  road : 

Where  is  the  movement,  where  is  the 
rest,  on  that  shore  ? 

There  is  no  water;  no  boat,  no  boat- 
man, is  there ; 

There  is  not  so  much  as  a  rope  to  tow 
the  boat,  nor  a  man  to  draw  it. 

No  earth,  no  sky,  no  time,  no  thing,  is 
there  :  no  shore,  no  ford  ! 

There,  there  is  neither  body  nor  mind  : 
and  where  is  the  place  that  shall 
still  the  thirst  of  the  soul?  You 
shall  find  naught  in  that  emptiness. 

Be  strong,  and  enter  into  your  own 


70  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

body :  for  there  your  foothold  is 
firm.  Consider  it  well,  O  my 
heart !  go  not  elsewhere. 
Kabir  says:  "Put  all  imaginations 
away,  and  stand  fast  in  that  which 
you  are." 

XXI 

II.  33.     ghar  ghar  dlpak  varai 

LAMPS  burn  in  every  house,  O 
blind  one !  and  you  cannot  see 
them. 

One  day  your  eyes  shall  suddenly  be 
opened,  and  you  shall  see  :  and  the 
fetters  of  death  will  fall  from  you. 

There  is  nothing  to  say  or  to  hear, 
there  is  nothing  to  do :  it  is  he 
who  is  living,  yet  dead,  who  shall 
never  die  again. 

Because  he  lives  in  solitude,  therefore 
the  Yogi  says  that  his  home  is  far 
away. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  71 

Your  Lord  is  near :  yet  you  are  climb- 
ing the  palm-tree  to  seek  Him. 

The  Brahman  priest  goes  from  house 
to  house  and  initiates  people  into 
faith : 

Alas  !  the  true  fountain  of  life  is  beside 
you,  and  you  have  set  up  a  stone 
to  worship. 

Kabir  says  :  "I  may  never  express  how 
sweet  my  Lord  is.  Yoga  and  the 
telling  of  beads,  virtue  and  vice  — 
these  are  naught  to  Him." 

XXII 

II.  38.     Sddho,  so  satgur  mohin  bhdwai 

O    BROTHER,  my  heart  yearns  for 
that  true  Guru,  who  fills  the  cup 
of  true  love,  and  drinks  of  it  him- 
self, and  offers  it  then  to  me. 
He  removes  the  veil  from  the  eyes,  and 

gives  the  true  Vision  of  Brahma : 
He   reveals   the   worlds   in   Him,   and 


72  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

makes  me  to  hear  the  Unstruck 

Music : 
He  shows  joy  and  sorrow  to  be  one : 
He  fills  all  utterance  with  love. 
Kabir  says:    "Verily  he  has  no  fear, 

who  has  such  a  Guru  to  lead  him 

to  the  shelter  of  safety !" 

XXIII 

II.  40.     tinwir  sdnjh  kd  gahird  dwai 

THE  shadows  of  evening  fall  thick 
and  deep,  and  the  darkness  of  love 

envelops  the  body  and  the  mind. 
Open  the  window  to  the  west,  and  be 

lost  in  the  sky  of  love ; 
Drink  the  sweet  honey  that  steeps  the 

petals  of  the  lotus  of  the  heart. 
Receive  the  waves  in  your  body  :  what 

splendour  is  in  the  region  of  the 

sea ! 
Hark  !  the  sounds  of  conches  and  bells 

are  rising. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  73 

Kabirsays:    "  O  brother,  behold  !   the 
Lord  is  in  this  vessel  of  my  body." 


XXIV 

II.  48.    jis  se  rahani  apdr  jagat  men 

MORE  than  all  else  do  I  cherish  at 
heart  that  love  which  makes 
me  to  live  a  limitless  life  in  this 
world. 

It  is  like  the  lotus,  which  lives  in  the 
water  and  blooms  in  the  water : 
yet  the  water  cannot  touch  its 
petals,  they  open  beyond  its  reach. 

It  is  like  a  wife,  who  enters  the  fire  at 
the  bidding  of  love.  She  burns 
and  lets  others  grieve,  yet  never 
dishonours  love. 

This  ocean  of  the  world  is  hard  to  cross  : 
its  waters  are  very  deep.  Kabir 
says:  "Listen  to  me,  O  Sadhu  ! 
few  there  are  who  have  reached  its 
end." 


74  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

XXV 

II.  45.     Hari  ne  apnd  dp  chipdyd 

MY  Lord  hides  Himself,  and  my 
Lord  wonderfully  reveals  Him- 
self : 

My  Lord  has  encompassed  me  with 
hardness,  and  my  Lord  has  cast 
down  my  limitations. 

My  Lord  brings  to  me  words  of  sorrow 
and  words  of  joy,  and  He  Himself 
heals  their  strife. 

I  will  offer  my  body  and  mind  to  my 
Lord :  I  will  give  up  my  life,  but 
never  can  I  forget  my  Lord  ! 

XXVI 

II.  75.     onkdr  savai  hoi  sirjai 

ALL  things  are  created  by  the  Om  ; 
The  love-form  is  His  body. 
He  is  without  form,  without  quality, 

without  decay : 
Seek  thou  union  with  Him  ! 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  75 

But  that  formless  God  takes  a  thousand 

forms  in  the  eyes  of  His  creatures : 
He  is  pure  and  indestructible, 
His  form  is  infinite  and  fathomless, 
He  dances  in  rapture,   and   waves   of 

form  arise  from  His  dance. 
The  body  and  the  mind  cannot  contain 

themselves,  when  they  are  touched 

by  His  great  joy. 
He  is  immersed  in  all  consciousness,  all 

joys,  and  all  sorrows  ; 
He  has  no  beginning  and  no  end ; 
He  holds  all  within  His  bliss. 

XXVII 

II.  81.     satgur  sol  day  a  kar  dinhd 

T  is  the  mercy  of  my  true  Guru  that 
has  made  me  to  know  the  un- 
known ; 
I  have  learned  from  Him  how  to  walk 
without  feet,  to  see  without  eyes, 
to    hear    without    ears,    to    drink 


I 


76  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

without  mouth,  to  fly  without 
wings ; 

I  have  brought  my  love  and  my  medi- 
tation into  the  land  where  there 
is  no  sun  and  moon,  nor  day  and 
night. 

Without  eating,  I  have  tasted  of  the 
sweetness  of  nectar;  and  without 
water,  I  have  quenched  my  thirst. 

Where  there  is  the  response  of  delight, 
there  is  the  fullness  of  joy.  Be- 
fore whom  can  that  joy  be  uttered  ? 

Kabir  says:  "The  Guru  is  great  be- 
yond words,  and  great  is  the  good 
fortune  of  the  disciple." 

XXVIII 
II.  85.     nirgun  age  sargun  ndcai 

BEFORE    the    Unconditioned,   the 
Conditioned  dances : 
"Thou  and  I  are  one!"    this  trumpet 
proclaims. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  77 

The  Guru  comes,  and  bows  down  before 

the  disciple : 
This  is  the  greatest  of  wonders. 

XXIX 

II.  87.     Kablr  kab  se  bhaye  vairdgi 

GORAKHNATH  asks  Kabir: 
"Tell  me,   O   Kabir,   when    did 

your  vocation  begin  ?    Where  did 

your  love  have  its  rise?'; 
Kabir  answers : 
"When  He  whose  forms  are  manifold 

had  not  begun  His    play :    when 

there  was  no  Guru,  and  no  disciple  : 

when   the   world   was   not   spread 

out :    when  the  Supreme  One  was 

alone  — 
Then  I  became  an  ascetic ;    then,  O 

Gorakh,   my   love  was  drawn   to 

Brahma. 
Brahma  did  not  hold  the  crown  on  his 

head ;     the   god   Vishnu   was   not 


78  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

anointed  as  king;  the  power  of 
Shiva  was  still  unborn;  when  I 
was  instructed  in  Yoga. 

I  became  suddenly  revealed  in  Benares, 

and  Ramananda  illumined  me ; 
I  brought  with  me  the  thirst  for  the 

Infinite,  and  I  have  come  for  the 

meeting  with  Him. 
In    simplicity    will   I    unite    with    the 

Simple  One;    my  love  will  surge 

up. 
O    Gorakh,    march    thou    with    His 

music  !" 

XXX 

II.  95.     yd  tarivar  men  eh  pakheru 

ON  this  tree  is  a   bird :    it   dances 
in  the  joy  of  life. 
None   knows    where   it   is :     and   who 
knows    what    the    burden    of    its 
music  may  be? 
Where    the    branches    throw    a    deep 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  79 

shade,  there  does  it  have  its  nest : 
and  it  comes  in  the  evening  and 
flies>way  in  the  morning,  and  says 
not  a  word  of  that  which  it  means. 

None  tell  me  of  this  bird  that  sings 
within  me. 

It  is  neither  coloured  nor  colourless  :  it 
has  neither  form  nor  outline  : 

It  sits  in  the  shadow  of  love. 

It  dwells  within  the  Unattainable,  the 
Infinite,  and  the  Eternal;  and  no 
one  marks  when  it  comes  and  goes. 

Kabirsays:  "O  brother  Sadhu  !  deep 
is  the  mystery.  Let  wise  men  seek 
to  know  where  rests  that  bird." 

XXXI 

II.  100.     nis  din  sdlai  ghdw 

A   SORE  pain  troubles  me  day  and 
night,  and  I  cannot  sleep ; 
I  long  for  the  meeting  with  my  Beloved, 
and  my  father's   house  gives  me 
pleasure  no  more. 


80  SONGS   OF   KABIR 

The  gates  of  the  sky  are  opened,  the 

temple  is  revealed  : 
I  meet  my  husband,  and  leave  at  His 

feet  the  offering  of  my  body  and 

my  mind. 

XXXII 

II.  103.     nacu  re  mero  man  matta  hoy 

DANCE,  my  heart !  dance  to-day 
with  joy. 

The  strains  of  love  fill  the  days  and 
the  nights  with  music,  and  the 
world  is  listening  to  its  melodies : 

Mad  with  joy,  life  and  death  dance  to 
the  rhythm  of  this  music.  The 
hills  and  the  sea  and  the  earth 
dance.  The  world  of  man  dances 
in  laughter  and  tears. 

Why  put  on  the  robe  of  the  monk,  and 
live  aloof  from  the  world  in  lonely 
pride  ? 

Behold  !    my  heart  dances  in  the  de- 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  81 

light  of  a  hundred  arts ;    and  the 
Creator  is  well  pleased. 

XXXIII 
II.  105.     man  mast  hud  tab  kyon  bole 

WHERE    is    the  need  of    words, 
when  love  has  made  drunken 

the  heart  ? 
I  have  wrapped  the  diamond   in   my 

cloak;     why    open    it    again    and 

again  ? 
When  its  load  was  light,  the  pan  of  the 

balance  went  up :    now  it  is  full, 

where  is  the  need  for  weighing  ? 
The  swan  has  taken  its  flight  to  the 

lake  beyond  the  mountains  ;    why 

should  it  search  for  the  pools  and 

ditches  any  more  ? 
Your   Lord   dwells   within   you :    why 

need  your  outward  eyes  be  opened  ? 
Kabir  says  :   "Listen,  my  brother  !   my 

Lord,  who  ravishes  my  eyes,  has 

united  Himself  with  me." 


82  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

XXXIV 

II.  110.     mold  tohi  Idgl  kaise  chute 

HOW  could  the  love  between  Thee 
and  me  sever  ? 
As  the  leaf  of  the  lotus  abides  on  the 

water :   so  Thou  art  my  Lord,  and 

I  am  Thv  servant. 
As    the    night-bird    Chakor    gazes    all 

night  at  the  moon :    so  Thou  art 

my  Lord  and  I  am  Thy  servant. 
From  the  beginning  until  the  ending 

of    time,    there    is    love    between 

Thee  and  me ;   and  how  shall  such 

love  be  extinguished  ? 
Kabir  says :  "  As  the  river  enters  into  the 

ocean,  so  my  heart  touches  Thee." 

XXXV 

II.   113.     Vdlam  dwo  hamdre  geh  re 

MY  body  and  my  mind  are  grieved 
for  the  want  of  Thee ; 
O  my  Beloved  !  come  to  my  house. 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  83 

When  people  say  I  am  Thy  bride,  I  am 
ashamed ;  for  I  have  not  touched 
Thy  heart  with  my  heart. 

Then  what  is  this  love  of  mine  ?  I  have 
no  taste  for  food,  I  have  no  sleep ; 
my  heart  is  ever  restless  within 
doors  and  without. 

As  water  is  to  the  thirsty,  so  is  the 
lover  to  the  bride.  Who  is  there 
that  will  carry  my  news  to  my 
Beloved  ? 

Kabir  is  restless  :  he  is  dying  for  sight 
of  Him. 

XXXVI 

II.   126.     jag  piydri  ab  kd  sowai 

0    FRIEND,  awake,  and  sleep  no 
more ! 
The  night  is  over  and  gone,  would  you 

lose  your  day  also  ? 
Others,  who  have  wakened,  have  re- 
ceived jewels ; 


84  SONGS   OF   KABIR 

O  foolish  woman  !    you   have  lost  all 

whilst  you  slept. 
Your  lover  is  wise,  and  you  are  foolish, 

O  woman  ! 
You  never  prepared  the  bed  of  your 

husband : 
O  mad  one  !    you  passed  your  time  in 

silly  play. 
Your  youth  was  passed  in  vain,  for  you 

did  not  know  your  Lord  ; 
Wake,  wake  !    See  !  your  bed  is  empty  : 

He  left  you  in  the  night. 
Kabir  says:    "Only  she  wakes,  whose 

heart   is   pierced   with   the   arrow 

of  His  music." 

XXXVII 

I.  36.     sur    parkas,    tanh    rain    kahan 

pdiye 

WHERE  is  the  night,  when    the 
sun  is  shining?     If  it  is  night, 
then  the  sun  withdraws  its  light. 
Where  knowledge  is,  can  ignorance  en- 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  85 

dure  ?     If  there  be  ignorance,  then 
knowledge  must  die. 
If  there  be  lust,  how  can  love  be  there  ? 
Where  there  is  love,  there  is  no  lust. 

Lay  hold  on  your  sword,  and  join  in 
the  fight !  Fight,  O  my  brother, 
as  long  as  life  lasts. 

Strike  off  your  enemy's  head,  and 
there  make  an  end  of  him  quickly : 
then  come,  and  bow  your  head  at 
your  King's  Durbar. 

He  who  is  brave,  never  forsakes  the 
battle :  he  who  flies  from  it  is  no 
true  fighter. 

In  the  field  of  this  body  a  great  war 
goes  forward,  against  passion,  an- 
ger, pride,  and  greed : 

It  is  in  the  kingdom  of  truth,  content- 
ment and  purity,  that  this  battle 
is  raging ;  and  the  sword  that 
rings  forth  most  loudly  is  the 
sword  of  His  Name. 


86  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

Kabir  says:  "When  a  brave  knight 
takes  the  field,  a  host  of  cowards 
is  put  to  flight. 

It  is  a  hard  fight  and  a  weary  one,  this 
fight  of  the  truth-seeker :  for  the 
vow  of  the  truth-seeker  is  more 
hard  than  that  of  the  warrior, 
or  of  the  widowed  wife  who  would 
follow  her  husband. 

For  the  warrior  fights  for  a  few  hours, 
and  the  widow's  struggle  with 
death  is  soon    ended : 

But  the  truth-seeker's  battle  goes  on 
day  and  night,  as  long  as  life  lasts 
it  never  ceases." 

(  XXXVIII 

I.  50.  U bhrarnSke^  tdld  lagd  mahal  ye 

THE    lockof  \error)  shuts  the  gate, 
open  it  with  the  key  of  love: 
Thus,  by  opening  the  door,  thou  shalt 
wake  the  Beloved. 


SONGS   OF   KABIR  87 

Kabir  says  :    "O  brother  !   do  not  pass 
by  such  good  fortune  as  this." 

XXXIX 

I.  59.     Sadho,  yah  tan  thdth  tanvurekd 

O  FRIEND  !  this  body  is  His  lyre ; 
He  tightens  its  strings,  and  draws 
from  it  the  melody  of  Brahma. 
If  the  strings  snap  and  the  keys 
slacken,  then  to  dust  must  this  in- 
strument of  dust  return : 
Kabir  says:  "None  but  Brahma  can 
evoke  its  melodies." 

XL 

I.  65.     avadhu  bhule  ho  ghar  lawe 

E  is  dear  to  me  indeed  who  can 
call  back  the  wanderer  to  his 
home.  In  the  home  is  the  true 
union,  in  the  home  is  enjoyment  of 
life :  why  should  I  forsake  my 
home  and  wander  in  the  forest? 


H 


88  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

If  Brahma  helps  me  to  realize 
truth,  verily  I  will  find  both  bond- 
age and  deliverance  in  home. 

He  is  dear  to  me  indeed  who  has  power 
to  dive  deep  into  Brahma;  whose 
mind  loses  itself  with  ease  in  His 
contemplation. 

He  is  dear  to  me  who  knows  Brahma, 
and  can  dwell  on  His  supreme 
truth  in  meditation  ;  and  who  can 
play  the  melody  of  the  Infinite  by 
uniting  love  and  renunciation  in  life. 

Kabir  says  :  "The  home  is  the  abiding 
place ;  in  the  home  is  reality  ;  the 
home  helps  to  attain  Him  Who  is 
real.  So  stay  where  you  are,  and  all 
things  shall  come  to  you  in  time.'' 

XLI 

I.  76.     santo  sahaj  samddh  bhali 

OSADHU  !  the  simple  union  is  the 
best. 
Since  the  day   when   I  met   with  my 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  89 

Lord,   there  has  been  no  end  to 

the  sport  of  our  love. 
I  shut  not  my  eyes,  I  close  not  my  ears, 

I  do  not  mortify  my  body ; 
I  see  with  eyes  open  and  smile,  and 

behold  His  beauty  everywhere  : 
I  utter  His  Name,  and  whatever  I  see, 

it  reminds  me  of  Him ;    whatever 

I  do,  it  becomes  His  worship. 
The  rising  and  the  setting  are  one  to 

me ;    all  contradictions  are  solved. 
Wherever  I  go,  I  move  round  Him, 
All  I  achieve  is  His  service : 
When  1  lie  down,  I  lie  prostrate  at  His 

feet. 

He  is  the  only  adorable  one  to  me :    I 

have  none  other. 
My  tongue  has  left  off  impure  words, 

it  sings  His  glory  day  and  night : 
Whether  I  rise  or  sit  down,  I  can  never 

forget  Him;    for   the    rhythm   of 

His  music  beats  in  my  ears. 


90  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

Kabir  says:  "My  heart  is  frenzied, 
and  I  disclose  in  my  soul  what  is 
hidden.  T  am  immersed  in  that 
one  great  bliss  which  transcends  all 
pleasure  and  pain." 

XLII 

I.  79.     tlrath  men  to  sab  pdni  hai 

THERE  is  nothing  but  water  at  the 
holy  bathing  places ;  and  T  know 
that  they  are  useless,  for  I  have 
bathed  in  them. 

The  images  are  all  lifeless,  they  cannot 
speak ;  I  know,  for  I  have  cried 
aloud  to  them. 

The  Purana  and  the  Koran  are  mere 
words ;  lifting  up  the  curtain,  I 
have  seen. 

Kabir  gives  utterance  to  the  words  of 
experience ;  and  he  knows  very 
well  that  all  other  things  are  un- 
true. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  91 

XLIII 

I.  82.     pdni  vie  mln  piydsi 

I  LAUGH  when  I  hear  that  the  fish 
in  the  water  is  thirsty : 
You  do  not  see  that  the  Real  is  in  your 
home,  and  you  wander  from  forest 
to  forest  listlessly ! 
Here  is  the  truth  !  Go  where  you  will, 
to  Benares  or  to  Mathura ;  if  you 
do  not  find  your  soul,  the  world  is 
unreal  to  you. 

XLIV 

I.  93.     gag  an  math  gaib  nisdn  gade 

THE  Hidden  Banner  is  planted  in 
the  temple  of  the  sky ;  there  the 
blue  canopy  decked  with  the  moon 
and  set  with  bright  jewels  is  spread. 
There  the  light  of  the  sun  and  the 
moon  is  shining :  still  your  mind 
to  silence  before  that  splendour. 


92  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

Kabir  says  :  ;'  He  who  has  drunk  of  this 
nectar,  wanders  like  one  who  is 
mad." 

XLV 

I.  97.     sddho,  ko  hai  kanh  se  dyo 

WHO  are  you,  and  whence  do  you 
come  ? 

Where  dwells  that  Supreme  Spirit,  and 
how  does  He  have  His  sport  with 
all  created  things  ? 

The  fire  is  in  the  wood ;  but  who 
awakens  it  suddenly?  Then  it 
turns  to  ashes,  and  where  goes  the 
force  of  the  fire  ? 

The  true  guru  teaches  that  He  has 
neither  limit  nor  infinitude. 

Kabir  says:  "Brahma  suits  His  lan- 
guage to  the  understanding  of  His 
hearer." 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  93 

XLVI  v 

I.  98.     Sddho,  sahajai  kdyd  sodho 

OSADHU !    purify  your   body  in 
the  simple  way. 
As  the  seed  is  within  the  banyan  tree, 

and  within  the  seed  are  the  flowers, 

the  fruits,  and  the  shade : 
So  the  germ  is  within  the  body,  and 

within  that  germ  is  the  body  again. 
The  fire,  the  air,  the  water,  the  earth, 

and  the  aether ;    you  cannot  have 

these  outside  of  Him. 
O  Kazi,   O  Pundit,   consider   it  well : 

what  is  there  that  is  not  in  the 

soul  ? 
The  water-filled  pitcher  is  placed  upon 

water,    it   has    water   within   and 

without. 
It  should  not  be  given  a  name,  lest  it 

call  forth  the  error  of  dualism. 
Kabir  says :    "Listen  to  the  Word,  the 

Truth,  which  is  your  essence.     He 


94  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

speaks  the  Word  to  Himself;   and 
He  Himself  is  the  Creator." 

XL  VII 

I.  102.    tarvar  ek  mill  vin  thddd 

THERE  is  a  strange  tree,  which 
stands  without  roots  and  bears 
fruits  without  blossoming ; 

It  has  no  branches  and  no  leaves,  it  is 
lotus  all  over. 

Two  birds  sing  there ;  one  is  the  Guru, 
and  the  other  the  disciple : 

The  disciple  chooses  the  manifold  fruits 
of  life  and  tastes  them,  and  the 
Guru  beholds  him  in  joy. 

What  Kabir  says  is  hard  to  understand  : 
"  The  bird  is  beyond  seeking,  yet  it 
is  most  clearly  visible.  The  Form- 
less is  in  the  midst  of  all  forms.  I 
sing  the  glory  of  forms." 


SONGS   OF   KABIR  95 

XL  VIII 
I.  107.     calat  mansd  acal  kinhi 

I  HAVE  stilled  my  restless  mind,  and 
my  heart  is  radiant :  for  in  That- 
ness  I  have  seen  beyond  That-ness, 
in  company  I  have  seen  the  Com- 
rade Himself. 

Living  in  bondage,  I  have  set  myself 
free :  I  have  broken  away  from 
the  clutch  of  all  narrowness. 

Kabir  says:  "I  have  attained  the 
unattainable,  and  my  heart  is 
coloured  with  the  colour  of  love." 

XLIX 

I.   105.     jo  disai,  so  to  hai  ndhin 

THAT  which  you  see  is  not :  and  for 
that  which  is,  you  have  no  words. 
Unless  you  see,  you  believe  not :  what 

is  told  you  you  cannot  accept. 
He  who  is  discerning  knows  by  the  word ; 
and  the  ignorant  stands  gaping. 


96  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

Some  contemplate  the  Formless,  and 
others  meditate  on  form  :  but  the 
wise  man  knows  that  Brahma  is 
beyond  both. 

That  beauty  of  His  is  not  seen  of  the 
eye  :  that  metre  of  His  is  not  heard 
of  the  ear. 

Kabir  says :  "He  who  has  found  both 
love  and  renunciation  never  de- 
scends to  death." 

L 

I.  126.     murali  bajat  akhand  saddye 

THE  flute  of  the  Infinite  is  played 
without  ceasing,  and  its  sound  is 
love : 
When    love    renounces    all    limits,    it 

reaches  truth. 
How  widely  the  fragrance  spreads  !     It 
has  no  end,  nothing  stands  in  its 
way. 
The  form  of  this  melody  is  bright  like 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  97 

a  million  suns :  incomparably 
sounds  the  vina,  the  vina  of  the 
notes  of  truth. 


LI 

I.  129.     sakhiyo   ham   hun   bhai   vala- 

masi 

DEAR  friend,  I  am  eager  to  meet 
my  Beloved !  My  youth  has 
flowered,  and  the  pain  of  separa- 
tion from  Him  troubles  my  breast. 

I  am  wandering  yet  in  the  alleys  of 
knowledge  without  purpose,  but  I 
have  received  His  news  in  these 
alleys  of  knowledge. 

I  have  a  letter  from  my  Beloved :  in 
this  letter  is  an  unutterable  mes- 
sage, and  now  my  fear  of  death  is 
done  away. 

Kabirsays:  "  O  my  loving  friend  !  I 
have  got  for  my  gift  the  Deathless 
One." 


98  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

LII 
I.  130.     sain  vin  dard  kareje  hoy 

WHEN  I  am  parted  from  my 
Beloved,  my  heart  is  full  of 
misery :  I  have  no  comfort  in  the 
day,  I  have  no  sleep  in  the  night. 
To  whom  shall  I  tell  my  sorrow? 

The  night  is  dark;  the  hours  slip  by. 
Because  my  Lord  is  absent,  I  start 
up  and  tremble  with  fear. 

Kabir  says  :  "Listen,  my  friend  !  there 
is  no  other  satisfaction,  save  in  the 
encounter  with  the  Beloved." 

LIII 

I.  122.     Icaum  murall  sabd  sun  dnand 

bhayo 

WHAT  is  that  flute  whose  music 
thrills  me  with  joy  ? 
The  flame  burns  without  a  lamp ; 
The  lotus  blossoms  without  a  root ; 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  99 

Flowers  bloom  in  clusters  ; 

The  moon-bird  is  devoted  to  the  moon  ; 

With  all  its  heart  the  rain-bird  longs 

for  the  shower  of  rain ; 
But  upon  whose  love  does  the  Lover 

concentrate  His  entire  life? 

LIV 

I.  112.     suntd  nahi  dhun  hi  khabar 

HAVE  you  not  heard  the  tune 
which  the  Unstruck  Music  is 
playing?  In  the  midst  of  the 
chamber  the  harp  of  joy  is  gently 
and  sweetly  played ;  and  where  is 
the  need  of  going  without  to  hear 
it? 

If  you  have  not  drunk  of  the  nectar  of 
that  One  Love,  what  boots  it 
though  you  should  purge  yourself 
of  all  stains  ? 

The  Kazi  is  searching  the  words  of  the 
Koran,    and    instructing    others : 


n£ 


100  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

but  if  his  heart  be  not  steeped  in 
that  love,  what  does  it  avail, 
though  he  be  a  teacher  of  men  ? 

The  Yogi  dyes  his  garments  with  red : 
but  if  he  knows  naught  of  that 
colour  of  love,  what  does  it  avail 
though  his  garments  be  tinted  ? 

Kabir  says :  '  Whether  I  be  in  the 
temple  or  the  balcony,  in  the  camp 
or  in  the  flower  garden,  I  tell  you 
truly  that  every  moment  my  Lord 
is  taking  His  delight  in  me.5 


?> 


LV 

I.  73.     bhakti  kd  mdrag  jhind  re 

SUBTLE  is  the  path  of  love  ! 
Therein  there   is  no  asking  and 
no  not-asking, 
There  one  loses  one's  self  at  His  feet, 
There  one  is  immersed  in  the  joy  of 
the  seeking  :   plunged  in  the  deeps 
of  love  as  the  fish  in  the  water. 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  101 

The  lover  is  never  slow  in  offering  his 

head  for  his  Lord's  service. 
Kabir  declares  the  secret  of  this  love. 


LVI 

I.  68.     bhdi  hoi  satguru  sant  kahdwai 

HE  is  the  real  Sadhu,  who  can  re- 
veal the  form  of  the  Formless  to 

the  vision  of  these  eyes : 
Who  teaches  the  simple  way  of  attain- 
ing Him,  that  is  other  than  rites 

or  ceremonies : 
Who  does  not  make  you  close  the  doors, 

and  hold  the  breath,  and  renounce 

the  world : 
Who  makes  you  perceive  the  Supreme 

Spirit  wherever  the  mind  attaches 

itself : 
Who  teaches  you  to  be  still  in  the  midst 

of  all  your  activities. 
Ever  immersed  in  bliss,  having  no  fear 

in  his  mind,  he  keeps  the  spirit  of 


102  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

union  in  the  midst  of  all  enjoy- 
ments. 
The   infinite   dwelling   of   the   Infinite 

Being    is    everywhere :     in    earth, 

water,  sky,  and  air : 
Firm  as  the  thunderbolt,  the  seat  of 

the  seeker  is  established  above  the 

void. 
He  who  is  within  is  without :    I  see 

Him  and  none  else. 

LVII 

I.  66.     sddho  sabd  sddhnd  kijai 

RECEIVE  that  Word   from   which 
the  Universe  springeth  ! 
That  Word  is  the  Guru ;    I  have  heard 

it,  and  become  the  disciple. 
How   many  are   there  who    know  the 

meaning  of  that  Word  ? 
O  Sadhu  !   practise  that  Word  ! 
The  Vedas  and  the  Puranas  proclaim  it, 
The  world  is  established  in  it, 


SONGS  OF  KABIR         103 

The  Rishis  and  devotees  speak  of  it : 
But  none  knows  the  mystery  of  the 

Word. 
The  householder  leaves  his  house  when 

he  hears  it, 
The  ascetic  comes  back  to  love  when 

he  hears  it, 
The  Six  Philosophies  expound  it, 
The  Spirit  of  Renunciation  points  to 

that  Word, 
From  that  Word  the  world-form  has 

sprung, 
That  Word  reveals  all. 
Kabir  says:   "But  who  knows  whence 

the  Word  cometh?" 

LVIII 

I.  63.     pile  pydld  ho  matwdld 

EMPTY  the  Cup  !   O  be  drunken  ! 
Drink  the  divine  nectar  of  His 
Name  ! 
Kabir  says  :  "Listen  to  me,  dear  Sadhu  ! 


104         SONGS  OF  KABIR 

From  the  sole  of  the  foot  to  the  crown 
of  the  head  this  mind  is  filled  with 
poison." 

LIX 

I.  52.     Miasm  na  cinhai  bdwrl 

OMAN,  if  thou  dost  not  know  thine 
own  Lord,   whereof   art  thou  so 

proud  ? 
Put  thy  cleverness  away :    mere  words 

shall  never  unite  thee  to  Him. 
Do  not  deceive  thyself  with  the  witness 

of  the  Scriptures : 
,Love  is  something  other  than  this,  and 

he  who   has  sought  it  truly   has 

found  it. 


T 


LX 

I.  56.     sulch  sindh  Id  sair  ha 

HE   savour  of  wandering  in   the 
ocean   of   deathless    life   has   rid 
me  of  all  my  asking: 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  105 

As  the  tree  is  in  the  seed,  so  all  diseases 
are  in  this  asking. 

LXI 

I.  48.     sukh  sdgar  men  dyke 

"T"TTHEN  at  last  you  are  come  to  the 
f  T      ocean  of  happiness,  do  not  go 

back  thirsty. 
Wake,  foolish  man  !    for  Death  stalks 

you.     Here  is  pure  water  before 

you ;   drink  it  at  every  breath. 
Do  not  follow  the  mirage  on  foot,  but 

thirst  for  the  nectar ; 
Dhruva,  Prahlad,  and  Shukadeva  have 

drunk  of  it,  and  also  Raidas  has 

tasted  it : 
The  saints  are  drunk  with  love,  their 

thirst  is  for  love. 
Kabir  says:    "Listen  to  me,  brother! 

The  nest  of  fear  is  broken. 
Not  for  a  moment  have  you  come  face 

to  face  with  the  world  : 


106         SONGS  OF  KABIR 

You    are    weaving    your    bondage    of 

falsehood,  your  words  are  full  of 

deception : 
With  the  load  of  desires  which  you  hold 

on  your  head,   how  can  you   be 

light?" 
Kabir  says :  "  Keep  within  you  truth, 

detachment,  and  love." 

LXII 

I.  35.     sail  ko  kaun  sikhdwtd  hai 

WHO  has  ever  taught  the  widowed 
wife  to  burn  herself  on  the  pyre 
of  her  dead  husband  ? 
And  who  has  ever  taught  love  to  find 
bliss  in  renunciation  ? 

LXIII 

I.  39.     are  man  dhiraj  kdhe  na  dharai 

HY  so  impatient,  my  heart  ? 
He    who    watches    over   birds, 
beasts,  and  insects, 


w 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  107 

He  who  cared  for  you  whilst  you  were 
yet  in  your  mother's  womb, 

Shall  He  not  care  for  you  now  that  you 
are  come  forth  ? 

Oh  my  heart,  how  could  you  turn  from 
the  smile  of  your  Lord  and  wander 
so  far  from  Him  ? 

You  have  left  your  Beloved  and  are 
thinking  of  others :  and  this  is 
why  all  your  work  is  in  vain. 

LXIV 

I.  117.     sdni  se  lagan  kathin  hai  bhdl 

HOW  hard  it  is  to  meet  my  Lord  ! 
The  rain-bird  wails  in  thirst  for 
the  rain :  almost  she  dies  of  her 
longing,  yet  she  would  have  none 
other  water  than  the  rain. 
Drawn  by  the  love  of  music,  the  deer 
moves  forward :  she  dies  as  she 
listens  to  the  music,  yet  she  shrinks 
not  in  fear. 


108         SONGS  OF   KABIR 

The  widowed  wife  sits  by  the  body  of 
her  dead  husband :  she  is  not 
afraid  of  the  fire. 

Put  away  all  fear  for  this  poor  body. 

LXV 

I.  22.     jab  main  bhuld  re  bhdl 

O  BROTHER!  when  I  was  for- 
getful, my  true  Guru  showed  me 
the  Way. 

Then  I  left  off  all  rites  and  ceremonies, 
I  bathed  no  more  in  the  holy 
water : 

Then  I  learned  that  it  was  I  alone  who 
was  mad,  and  the  whole  world 
beside  me  was  sane ;  and  I  had 
disturbed  these  wise  people. 

From  that  time  forth  I  knew  no  more 
how  to  roll  in  the  dust  in  obei- 
sance : 

I  do  not  ring  the  temple  bell : 

I  do  not  set  the  idol  on  its  throne : 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  109 

I  do  not  worship  the  image  with  flowers. 

It  is  not  the  austerities  that  mortify  the 
flesh  which  are  pleasing  to  the  Lord, 

When  you  leave  off  your  clothes  and 
kill  your  senses,  you  do  not  please 
the  Lord : 

The  man  who  is  kind  and  who  practises 
righteousness,  who  remains  passive 
amidst  the  affairs  of  the  world, 
who  considers  all  creatures  on 
earth  as  his  own  self, 

He  attains  the  Immortal  Being,  the 
true  God  is  ever  with  him. 

Kabir  says:  "He  attains  the  true 
Name  whose  words  are  pure,  and 
who  is  free  from  pride  and  con- 
ceit." 

LXVI 

I.  20.     man  na  rang  dye 

THE   Yogi   dyes    his  garments,  in- 
stead of   dyeing  his  mind  in  the 
colours  of  love : 


110         SONGS  OF  KABIR 

He  sits  within  the  temple  of  the  Lord, 
leaving  Brahma  to  worship  a  stone. 

He  pierces  holes  in  his  ears,  he  has  a 
great  beard  and  matted  locks,  he 
looks  like  a  goat : 

He  goes  forth  into  the  wilderness,  kill- 
ing all  his  desires,  and  turns  him- 
self into  an  eunuch : 

He  shaves  his  head  and  dyes  his  gar- 
ments ;  he  reads  the  Gita  and  be- 
comes a  mighty  talker. 

Kabir  says:  "You  are  going  to  the 
doors  of  death,  bound  hand  and 
foot!" 

LXVII 

I.  9.     nd  jane  sdhab  kaisd  hai 

I  DO  not  know  what  manner  of  God 
is  mine. 
The  Mullah  cries  aloud  to  Him  :    and 
why?     Is  your  Lord  deaf?     The 
subtle   anklets   that   ring   on   the 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  111 

feet  of  an  insect  when  it  moves 
are  heard  of  Him. 
Tell  your  beads,  paint  your  forehead 
with  the  mark  of  your  God,  and 
wear  matted  locks  long  and  showy  : 
but  a  deadly  weapon  is  in  your 
heart,  and  how  shall  you  have 
God? 

LXVIII 
III.  102.     ham  se  rahd  na  jay 

I  HEAR  the  melody  of  His  flute,  and 
I  cannot  contain  myself  ! 
The  flower  blooms,  though  it  is  not 

spring;    and  already  the  bee  has 

received  its  invitation. 
The  sky  roars  and  the  lightning  flashes, 

the  waves  arise  in  my  heart, 
The  rain  falls ;   and  my  heart  longs  for 

my  Lord. 
Where  the  rhythm  of  the  world  rises 

and   falls,   thither   my   heart   has 

reached : 


112         SONGS  OF   KABIR 

There  the  hidden  banners  are  fluttering 

in  the  air. 
Kabir    says:     "My    heart    is    dying, 

though  it  lives." 

LXIX 
III.  2.    jo  khoddy  masjid  vastu  hai 

IF  God  be  within  the  mosque,  then 
to  whom  does  this  world  belong? 
If  Ram  be  within  the  image  which  you 

find   upon   your  pilgrimage,   then 

who  is  there  to  know  what  happens 

without  ? 
Hari  is  in  the  East :    Allah  is  in  the 

West.     Look    within    your    heart, 

for  there  you  will  find  both  Karim 

and  Ram ; 
All  the  men  and  women  of  the  world 

are  His  living  forms. 
Kabir  is  the  child  of  Allah  and  of  Ram : 

He  is  my  Guru,  He  is  my  Pir. 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  113 

LXX 

III.  9.     sll  santosh  sadd  samadrishti 

HE  who  is  meek  and  contented,  he 
who  has  an  equal  vision,  whose 
mind  is  filled  with  the  fullness  of 
acceptance  and  of  rest ; 

He  who  has  seen  Him  and  touched 
Him,  he  is  freed  from  all  fear  and 
trouble. 

To  him  the  perpetual  thought  of  God 
is  like  sandal  paste  smeared  on 
the  body,  to  him  nothing  else  is 
delight : 

His  work  and  his  rest  are  filled  with 
music :  he  sheds  abroad  the  radi- 
ance of  love. 

Kabir  says:  "Touch  His  feet,  who  is 
one  and  indivisible,  immutable 
and  peaceful ;  who  fills  all  vessels 
to  the  brim  with  joy,  and  whose 
form  is  love." 


114         SONGS  OF  KABIR 

LXXI 
III.  13.     sddh  sahgat  pitam 

GO  thou  to  the  company  of  the 
good,  where  the  Beloved  One 
has  His  dwelling-place : 

Take  all  thy  thoughts  and  love  and 
instruction  from  thence. 

Let  that  assembly  be  burnt  to  ashes 
where  His  Name  is  not  spoken  ! 

Tell  me,  how  couldst  thou  hold  a 
wedding-feast,  if  the  bridegroom 
himself  were  not  there  ? 

Waver  no  more,  think  only  of  the  Be- 
loved ; 

Set  not  thy  heart  on  the  worship  of 
other  gods,  there  is  no  worth  in 
the  worship  of  other  masters. 

Kabir  deliberates  and  says :  '  Thus 
thou  shalt  never  find  the  Be- 
loved!" 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  115 

LXXII  ^^ 

III.  26.     for  hird  hirdilwd  kin  cad  men 

THE  jewel  is  lost  in  the  mud,  and 
all  are  seeking  for  it ; 
Some  look  for  it  in  the  east,  and  some 
in  the  west ;  some  in  the  water 
and  some  amongst  stones. 
But  the  servant  Kabir  has  appraised  it 
at  its  true  value,  and  has  wrapped 
it  with  care  in  the  end  of  the 
mantle  of  his  heart. 


LXXIII 
III.  26.     dyau  din  gaune  kai  ho 

THE  palanquin  came  to  take  me 
away  to  my  husband's  home, 
and  it  sent  through  my  heart  a 
thrill  of  joy ; 
But  the  bearers  have  brought  me  into 
the  lonely  forest,  where  I  have  no 
one  of  my  own. 


116         SONGS  OF   KABIR 

O  bearers,  I  entreat  you  by  your  feet, 
wait  but  a  moment  longer  :  let  me 
go  back  to  my  kinsmen  and  friends, 
and  take  my  leave  of  them. 

The  servant  Kabir  sings:  "O  Sadhu  ! 
finish  your  buying  and  selling, 
have  done  with  your  good  and 
your  bad  :  for  there  are  no  mar- 
kets and  no  shops  in  the  land  to 
which  you  go." 

LXXIV 

III.  30.     are  dil,  prem  nagar  ha  ant  na 

pdyd 

OMY  heart !  you  have  not  known 
all  the  secrets  of  this  city  of 
love  :  in  ignorance  you  came,  and 
in  ignorance  you  return. 
O  my  friend,  what  have  you  done  with 
this  life  ?  You  have  taken  on  your 
head  the  burden  heavy  with  stones, 
and  who  is  to  lighten  it  for  you  ? 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  117 

Your  Friend  stands  on  the  other  shore, 
but  you  never  think  in  your  mind 
how  you  may  meet  with  Him : 

The  boat  is  broken,  and  yet  you  sit 
ever  upon  the  bank  ;  and  thus  you 
are  beaten  to  no  purpose  by  the 
waves. 

The  servant  Kabir  asks  you  to  con- 
sider; who  is  there  that  shall  be- 
friend you  at  the  last  ? 

You  are  alone,  you  have  no  companion  : 
you  will  suffer  the  consequences 
of  your  own  deeds. 

LXXV 
III.  55.     ved  kahe  sargun  ke  age 

THE  Vedas  say  that  the  Uncondi- 
tioned stands  beyond  the  world 
of  Conditions. 
O  woman,  what  does  it  avail  thee  to 
dispute  whether  He  is  beyond  all 
or  in  all  ? 


118         SONGS  OF   KABIR 

See  thou  everything  as  thine  own 
dwelling  place  :  the  mist  of  pleas- 
ure and  pain  can  never  spread  there. 

There  Brahma  is  revealed  day  and 
night :  there  light  is  His  garment, 
light  is  His  seat,  light  rests  on  thy 
head. 

Kabir  says  :  "The  Master,  who  is  true, 
He  is  all  light." 

LXXVI 
III.  48.     tu  surat  nain  nihdr 

OPEN  your  eyes  of  love,  and  see 
Him  who  pervades  this  world  ! 
consider  it  well,  and  know  that 
this  is  your  own  country. 

When  you  meet  the  true  Guru,  He  will 
awaken  your  heart ; 

He  will  tell  you  the  secret  of  love  and 
detachment,  and  then  you  will 
know  indeed  that  He  transcends 
this  universe. 


SONGS  OF   KABIR  119 

This  world  is  the  City  of  Truth,  its 
maze  of  paths  enchants  the  heart : 

We  can  reach  the  goal  without  crossing 
the  road,  such  is  the  sport  unend- 
ing. 

Where  the  ring  of  manifold  joys  ever 
dances  about  Him,  there  is  the 
sport  of  Eternal  Bliss. 

When  we  know  this,  then  all  our  re- 
ceiving and  renouncing  is  over; 

Thenceforth  the  heat  of  having  shall 
never  scorch  us  more. 

He  is  the  Ultimate  Rest  unbounded  : 

He  has  spread  His  form  of  love  through- 
out all  the  world. 

From  that  Ray  which  is  Truth,  streams 
of  new  forms  are  perpetually  spring- 
ing :  and  He  pervades  those  forms. 

All  the  gardens  and  groves  and  bowers 
are  abounding  with  blossom  ;  and 
the  air  breaks  forth  into  ripples 
of  joy. 


120         SONGS  OF  KABIR 

There  the  swan  plays  a  wonderful  game, 
There    the    Unstruck    Music     eddies 

around  the  Infinite  One; 
There  in  the  midst  the  Throne  of  the 

Unheld    is    shining,    whereon    the 

great  Being  sits  — 
Millions   of  suns   are  shamed  by  the 

radiance  of  a  single  hair  of  His 

body. 
On  the  harp  of  the  road    what   true 

melodies  are  being  sounded  !  and 

its  notes  pierce  the  heart : 
There  the  Eternal  Fountain  is  playing 

its    endless    life-streams    of    birth 

and  death. 
They  call  Him  Emptiness  who  is  the 

Truth    of   Truths,    in    Whom    all 

truths  are  stored  ! 

There  within  Him  creation  goes  for- 
ward, which  is  beyond  all  philoso- 
phy ;  for  philosophy  cannot  attain 
to  Him : 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  121 

There  is  an  endless  world,  O  my 
Brother !  and  there  is  the  Name- 
less Being,  of  whom  naught  can 
be  said. 

Only  he  knows  it  who  has  reached  that 
region :  it  is  other  than  all  that 
is  heard  and  said. 

No  form,  no  body,  no  length,  no 
breadth  is  seen  there :  how  can  I 
tell  you  that  which  it  is  ? 

He  comes  to  the  Path  of  the  Infinite 
on  whom  the  grace  of  the  Lord 
descends :  he  is  freed  from  births 
and  deaths  who  attains  to  Him. 

Kabir  says  :  "It  cannot  be  told  by  the 
words  of  the  mouth,  it  cannot  be 
written  on  paper : 

It  is  like  a  dumb  person  who  tastes  a 
sweet  thing  —  how  shall  it  be  ex- 
plained ?" 


122         SONGS  OF  KABIR 


LXXVII 
III.  60.     cal  hamsd  wd  des  jahan 
MY  heart !    let   us   go   to   that 


o 


country  where  dwells  the  Be- 
loved, the  ravisher  of  my  heart ! 

There  Love  is  filling  her  pitcher  from 
the  well,  yet  she  has  no  rope  where- 
with to  draw  water ; 

There  the  clouds  do  not  cover  the  sky, 
yet  the  rain  falls  down  in  gentle 
showers : 

O  bodiless  one !  do  not  sit  on  your 
doorstep ;  go  forth  and  bathe 
yourself  in  that  rain ! 

There  it  is  ever  moonlight  and  never 
dark ;  and  who  speaks  of  one  sun 
only  ?  that  land  is  illuminate  with 
the  rays  of  a  million  suns. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR         123 

LXXVIII 
III.  63.     kahain  Kabir,  suno  ho  sddho 

KABIR   says:     "O    Sadhu !     hear 
my    deathless    words.     If    you 

want  your  own  good,  examine  and 

consider  them  well. 
You  have  estranged  yourself  from  the 

Creator,  of  whom  you  have  sprung : 

you   have   lost  your  reason,   you 

have  bought  death. 
All    doctrines    and    all    teachings    are 

sprung  from  Him,  from  Him  they 

grow :    know  this  for  certain,  and 

have  no  fear. 
Hear  from  me  the  tidings  of  this  great 

truth ! 
Whose  name  do  you  sing,  and  on  whom 

do  you  meditate?     O,  come  forth 

from  this  entanglement ! 
He  dwells  at  the  heart  of  all  things,  so 

why  take  refuge  in  empty  desola- 
tion ? 


124         SONGS  OF    KABIR 

If  you  place  the  Guru  at  a  distance 
from  you,  then  it  is  but  the  dis- 
tance that  you  honour : 

If  indeed  the  Master  be  far  away,  then 
who  is  it  else  that  is  creating  this 
world  ? 

When  you  think  that  He  is  not  here, 
then  you  wander  further  and 
further  away,  and  seek  Him  in 
vain  with  tears. 

Where  He  is  far  off,  there  He  is  un- 
attainable :  where  He  is  near,  He 
is  very  bliss. 

Kabir  says:  'Lest  His  servant  should 
suffer  pain  He  pervades  him 
through  and  through." 

Know  yourself  then,  O  Kabir ;  for  He 
is  in  you  from  head  to  foot. 

Sing  with  gladness,  and  keep  your  seat 
unmoved  within  your  heart. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  125 

LXXIX 

III.  66.     nd  main  dharmi  nahin 
adharmi 

I  AM  neither  pious  nor  ungodly, 
I  live  neither  by  law  nor  by  sense, 

I  am  neither  a  speaker  nor  hearer, 

I  am  neither  a  servant  nor  master, 

I  am  neither  bond  nor  free, 

I  am  neither  detached  nor  attached. 

I  am  far  from  none  :  I  am  near  to  none. 

I  shall  go  neither  to  hell  nor  to  heaven. 

I  do  all  works ;  yet  I  am  apart  from 
all  works. 

Few  comprehend  my  meaning  :  he  who 
can  comprehend  it,  he  sits  un- 
moved. 

Kabir  seeks  neither  to  establish  nor  to 
destroy. 


126  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

LXXX 
III.  69.     satta  nam  hai  sab  ten  nydrd 

THE  true  Name  is  like  none  other 
name  ! 
The    distinction    of    the    Conditioned 

from  the  Unconditioned  is  but  a 

word : 
The   Unconditioned   is   the   seed,    the 

Conditioned  is  the  flower  and  the 

fruit. 
Knowledge    is    the    branch,    and    the 

Name  is  the  root. 
Look,  and  see  where  the  root  is :   hap- 
piness  shall   be   yours   when   you 

come  to  the  root. 
The  root  will  lead  you  to  the  branch, 

the  leaf,  the  flower,  and  the  fruit : 
It  is  the  encounter  with  the  Lord,  it  is 

the  attainment  of  bliss,  it  is  the 

reconciliation  of  the  Conditioned 

and  the  Unconditioned. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  127 

LXXXI 
III.  74.     pratham  ek  jo  dpai  dp 

IN  the  beginning  was  He  alone,  suffi- 
cient unto  Himself :  the  formless, 
colourless,  and  unconditioned 
Being. 

Then  was  there  neither  beginning, 
middle,  nor  end ; 

Then  were  no  eyes,  no  darkness,  no 
light ; 

Then  were  no  ground,  air,  nor  sky ;  no 
fire,  water,  nor  earth ;  no  rivers 
like  the  Ganges  and  the  Jumna,  no 
seas,  oceans,  and  waves. 

Then  was  neither  vice  nor  virtue ;  scrip- 
tures there  were  not,  as  the  Vedas 
and  Puranas,  nor  as  the  Koran. 

Kabir  ponders  in  his  mind  and  says, 
"Then  was  there  no  activity :  the 
Supreme  Being  remained  merged 
in  the  unknown  depths  of  His  own 
self." 


128  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

The  Guru  neither  eats  nor  drinks, 
neither  lives  nor  dies  : 

Neither  has  He  form,  line,  colour,  nor 
vesture. 

He  who  has  neither  caste  nor  clan  nor 
anything  else  —  how  may  I  de- 
scribe His  glory? 

He  has  neither  form  nor  formlessness, 

He  has  no  name, 

He  has  neither  colour  nor  colourless- 
ness, 

He  has  no  dwelling-place. 

LXXXII 

III.  76.     kahain  Kabir  vicar  he 

KABIR  ponders  and  says:  'He 
who  has  neither  caste  nor  coun- 
try, who  is  formless  and  without 
quality,  fills  all  space." 
The  Creator  brought  into  being  the 
Game  of  Joy :  and  from  the  word 
Om  the  Creation  sprang. 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  129 

The  earth  is  His  joy;  His  joy   is  the 

sky; 
His  joy  is  the  flashing  of  the  sun  and 

the  moon ; 
His  joy  is  the  beginning,  the  middle, 

and  the  end ; 
His  joy  is  eyes,  darkness,  and  light. 
Oceans  and  waves  are   His   joy :   His 

joy  the  Sarasvati,  the  Jumna,  and 

the  Ganges. 
The  Guru  is  One :   and  life  and  death, 

union  and  separation,  are  all  His 

plays  of  joy  ! 
His  play  the  land  and  water,  the  whole 

universe ! 
His  play  the  earth  and  the  sky ! 
In  play  is  the  Creation  spread  out,  in 

play  it  is  established.     The  whole 

world,    says    Kabir,   rests   in    His 

play,  yet  still  the  Player  remains 

unknown. 


130         SONGS  OF  KABIR 

LXXXIII 
III.  84.     jhi  jhi  jantar  bdjai 

THE  harp  gives  forth  murmurous 
music ;    and   the   dance  goes  on 

without  hands  and  feet. 
It  is  played  without  fingers,  it  is  heard 

without  ears :    for  He  is  the  ear, 

and  He  is  the  listener. 
The  gate  is  locked,  but  within  there  is 

fragrance :    and  there  the  meeting 

is  seen  of  none. 
The  wise  shall  understand  it. 

LXXXIV 
III.  89.     mor  phakirwd  mdngi  jay 

THE    Beggar    goes  a-begging,   but 
I  could  not  even  catch  sight  of 
Him : 
And  what  shall  I  beg  of  the  Beggar? 

He  gives  without  my  asking. 
Kabir  says  :    "I  am  His  own  :   now  let 
that  befall  which  may  befall !" 


SONGS   OF   KABIR  131 

LXXXV  ^  ,  ^°v 

III.  90.     naihar  se  jiyard  phdt  re^       *rr} 

MY  heart  cries  aloud  for  the  house 
of  my  lover ;  the  open  road  and 
the  shelter  of  a  roof  are  all  one  to 
her  who  has  lost  the  city  of  her 
husband. 

My  heart  finds  no  joy  in  anything :  my 
mind  and  my  body  are  distraught. 

His  palace  has  a  million  gates,  but  there 
is  a  vast  ocean  between  it  and  me  : 

How  shall  I  cross  it,  O  friend  ?  for  end- 
less is  the  outstretching  of  the  path. 

How  wondrously  this  lyre  is  wrought ! 
When  its  strings  are  rightly  strung, 
it  maddens  the  heart :  but  when 
the  keys  are  broken  and  the  strings 
are  loosened,  none  regard  it  more. 

I  tell  my  parents  with  laughter  that  I 
must  go  to  my  Lord  in  the 
morning ; 


132  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

They  are  angry,  for  they  do  not  want 
me  to  go,  and  they  say:  'She 
thinks  she  has  gained  such  do- 
minion over  her  husband  that  she 
can  have  whatsoever  she  wishes ; 
and  therefore  she  is  impatient  to  go 
to  him." 

Dear  friend,  lift  my  veil  lightly  now; 
for  this  is  the  night  of  love. 

Kabirsays:  "Listen  to  me!  My  heart 
is  eager  to  meet  my  lover :  I  lie 
sleepless  upon  my  bed.  Remem- 
ber me  early  in  the  morning !" 


LXXXVI 
III.  96.     jlw  mahal  men  Siw  pahunwd 

SERVE  your  God,   who  has   come 
into  this  temple  of  life  ! 
Do  not  act  the  part  of  a  madman,  for 

the  night  is  thickening  fast. 
He  has  awaited  me  for  countless  ages, 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  133 

for  love  of  me  He  has  lost  His 
heart : 

Yet  I  did  not  know  the  bliss  that  was 
so  near  to  me,  for  my  love  was  not 
yet  awake. 

But  now,  my  Lover  has  made  known 
to  me  the  meaning  of  the  note  that 
struck  my  ear : 

Now,  my  good  fortune  is  come. 

Kabir  says:  "Behold!  how  great  is 
my  good  fortune  !  I  have  received 
the  unending  caress  of  my  Be- 
loved!" 

LXXXVII 

I.  71.     gagan  ghatd  ghahar  dnl  sddho 

CLOUDS  thicken  in  the  sky!     O, 
listen  to  the  deep  voice  of  their 
roaring ; 
The  rain  comes  from  the  east  with  its 

monotonous  murmur. 
Take  care  of  the  fences  and  boundaries 


134  SONGS   OF  KABIR 

of  your  fields,  lest  the  rains  over- 
flow them ; 

Prepare  the  soil  of  deliverance,  and  let 
the  creepers  of  love  and  renuncia- 
tion be  soaked  in  this  shower. 

It  is  the  prudent  farmer  who  will  bring 
his  harvest  home ;  he  shall  fill 
both  his  vessels,  and  feed  both 
the  wise  men  and  the  saints. 

LXXXVIII 
III.  118.     dj  din  he  main  jdun  balihdri 

THIS  day  is  dear  to  me  above  all 
other  days,  for  to-day  the  Be- 
loved Lord  is  a  guest  in  my  house  ; 

My  chamber  and  my  courtyard  are 
beautiful  with  His  presence. 

My  longings  sing  His  Name,  and  they 
are  become  lost  in  His  great 
beauty : 

I  wash  His  feet,  and  I  look  upon  His 
Face ;  and  I  lay  before  Him  as  an 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  135 

offering  my  body,  my  mind,  and 

all  that  I  have. 
What  a  day  of  gladness  is  that  day  in 

which   my    Beloved,    who    is    my 

treasure,  comes  to  my  house ! 
All  evils  fly  from  my  heart  when  I  see 

my  Lord. 
"  My  love  has  touched  Him ;  my  heart 

is  longing  for  the  Name  which  is 

Truth." 
Thus  sings  Kabir,  the  servant  of  all 

servants. 

LXXXIX 

I.  100.     hoi  suntd  hai  jnani  rag  gag  an 

men 

IS  there  any  wise  man  who  will  listen 
to  that  solemn  music  which  arises 
in  the  sky  ? 
For  He,  the  Source  of  all  music,  makes 
all  vessels  full  fraught,  and  rests  in 
fullness  Himself. 


136  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

He  who  is  in  the  body  is  ever  athirst, 
for  he  pursues  that  which  is  in  part : 

But  ever  there  wells  forth  deeper  and 
deeper  the  sound  "He  is  this  — 
this  is  He";  fusing  love  and  re- 
nunciation into  one. 

Kabir  says:  "O  brother!  that  is  the 
Primal  Word." 

XC 

I.   108.     main  kdse  bujhaun 

TO  whom  shall  I  go  to  learn  about 
my  Beloved  ? 
Kabir  says:  "As  you  never  may  find 
the  forest  if  you  ignore  the  tree,  so 
He  may  never  be  found  in  abstrac- 
tions." 

XCI 

III.  12.     samskirit  bhdshd  padhi  linhd 

I    HAVE   learned   the   Sanskrit    lan- 
guage, so  let  all  men  call  me  wise : 
But  where  is  the  use  of  this,  when  I 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  137 

am   floating   adrift,   and   parched 

with  thirst,  and  burning  with  the 

heat  of  desire  ? 
To  no  purpose  do  you  bear  on  your 

head  this  load  of  pride  and  vanity. 
Kabir  says  :   "Lay  it  down  in  the  dust, 

and  go  forth  to  meet  the  Beloved. 

Address  Him  as  your  Lord." 

XCII 
III.  110.     carkhd  calai  surat  virahin  kd 

THE  woman  who  is  parted  from  her 
lover  spins  at  the  spinning  wheel. 
The    city    of    the    body    arises    in    its 

beauty ;    and  within  it  the  palace 

of  the  mind  has  been  built. 
The  wheel  of  love  revolves  in  the  sky, 

and  the  seat  is  made  of  the  jewels 

of  knowledge : 
What  subtle  threads  the  woman  weaves, 

and   makes   them   fine   with   love 

and  reverence ! 


138  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

Kabir  says:  "I  am  weaving  the  gar- 
land of  day  and  night.  When 
my  Lover  comes  and  touches  me 
with  His  feet,  I  shall  offer  Him  my 
tears." 


XCIII 
III.  111.     kotin  bhdnu  candra  tdrdgan 

BENEATH  the  great   umbrella   of 
my  King  millions    of    suns    and 

moons  and  stars  are  shining  ! 
He  is  the  Mind  within  my   mind :   He 

is  the  Eye  within  mine  eye. 
Ah,  could  my  mind  and  eyes  be  one ! 

Could  my  love  but  reach  to  my 

Lover !     Could  but  the  fiery  heat 

of  my  heart  be  cooled  ! 
Kabir  says :     "  When   you   unite   love 

with   the   Lover,    then   you   have 

love's  perfection." 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  139 

XCIV 

I.  92.     avadhu  begam  des  hamdrd 

OSADHU  !    my  land  is  a  sorrow- 
less  land. 
I  cry  aloud   to  all,  to   the   king  and 

the  beggar,  the  emperor  and  the 

fakir  — 
Whosoever   seeks   for    shelter    in    the 

Highest,   let  all  come  and  settle 

in  my  land ! 
Let  the  weary  come  and  lay  his  burdens 

here ! 

So  live  here,  my  brother,  that  you  may 
cross  with  ease  to  that  other  shore. 

It  is  a  land  without  earth  or  sky,  with- 
out moon  or  stars ; 

For  only  the  radiance  of  Truth  shines 
in  my  Lord's  Durbar. 

Kabir  says:  "O  beloved  brother! 
naught  is  essential  save  Truth." 


140  SONGS  OF   KABIR 

XCV 

I.  109.     sdni  he  sangan  sdsur  di 

I  CAME  with  my  Lord  to  my  Lord's 
home  :  but  I  lived  not  with  Him 
and  I  tasted  Him  not,  and  my 
youth  passed  away  like  a  dream. 

On  my  wedding  night  my  women- 
friends  sang  in  chorus,  and  I  was 
anointed  with  the  unguents  of 
pleasure  and  pain : 

But  when  the  ceremony  was  over,  I 
left  my  Lord  and  came  away,  and 
my  kinsman  tried  to  console  me 
upon  the  road. 

Kabir  says,  "I  shall  go  to  my  Lord's 
house  with  my  love  at  my  side ; 
then  shall  I  sound  the  trumpet  of 
triumph !" 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  141 

XCVI 

I.  75.     samujh  dekh  man  mlt  piyarwd 

O  FRIEND,   dear    heart   of   mine, 
think  well !    if  you  love  indeed, 

then  why  do  you  sleep  ? 
If   you    have    found    Him,    then    give 

yourself  utterly,  and  take  Him  to 

you. 
Why    do    you    loose    Him    again    and 

again  ? 
If  the  deep  sleep  of  rest  has  come  to 

your   eyes,  why  waste  your  time 

making    the    bed    and    arranging 

the   pillows  ? 
Kabir  says:    "I  tell  you  the  ways  of 

love  !   Even  though  the  head  itself 

must  be   given,   why   should  you 

weep  over  it?" 


142  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

XCVII 

II.  90.     sdhab  ham  men  sdhab  turn  men 

THE  Lord  is  in  me,  the  Lord  is  in 
you,  as  life  is  in  every  seed.     O 
servant !  put  false  pride  away,  and 
seek  for  Him  within  you. 
A  million  suns  are  ablaze  with  light, 
The  sea  of  blue  spreads  in  the  sky, 
The  fever  of  life  is  stilled,  and  all  stains 
are  washed  away ;    when  I  sit  in 
the  midst  of  that  world. 

Hark  to  the  unstruck  bells  and  drums  ! 

Take  your  delight  in  love  ! 
Rains  pour  down  without  water,  and 

the  rivers  are  streams  of  light. 
One  Love  it  is  that  pervades  the  whole 

world,  few  there  are  who  know  it 

fully : 
They  are  blind  who  hope  to  see  it  by 

the   light   of   reason,   that   reason 

which  is  the  cause  of  separation  — 
The  House  of  Reason  is  very  far  away  ! 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  143 

How  blessed  is  Kabir,  that  amidst  this 
great  joy  he  sings  within  his  own 
vessel. 

It  is  the  music  of  the  meeting  of  soul 
with  soul ; 

It  is  the  music  of  the  forgetting  of 
sorrows ; 

It  is  the  music  that  transcends  all  com- 
ing in  and  all  going  forth. 

XCVIII 

II.  98.     ritu  phdgun  niyardnl 

THE  month  of  March  draws  near:  ah, 
who  will  unite  me  to  my  Lover  ? 
How  shall  I  find  words  for  the  beauty 

of  my  Beloved  ?     For  He  is  merged 

in  all  beauty. 
His  colour  is  in  all  the  pictures  of  the 

world,  and  it  bewitches  the  body 

and  the  mind. 
Those  who  know  this,  know  what  is 

this  unutterable  play  of  the  Spring. 


144  SONGS  OF  KABIR 

Kabir  says:  "Listen  to  me,  brother! 
there  are  not  many  who  have 
found  this  out." 


XCIX 

II.  111.     ndrad  pydr  so  antar  ndhi 

OH  Narad  !  I  know  that  my  Lover 
cannot  be  far: 
When  my  Lover  wakes,  I  wake ;   when 

He  sleeps,  I  sleep. 
He  is  destroyed  at  the  root  who  gives 

pain  to  my  Beloved. 
Where  they  sing  His   praise,  there  I 

live ; 
When  He  moves,  I  walk  before  Him: 

my  heart  yearns  for  my  Beloved. 
The    infinite    pilgrimage    lies    at    His 

feet,  a  million  devotees  are  seated 

there. 
Kabir  says :    "The  Lover  Himself  re- 
veals the  glory  of  true  love." 


SONGS  OF  KABIR  145 


II.  122.     hoi  prem  hi  pehg  jhuldo  re 

HANG  up  the  swing  of  love  to-day  ! 
Hang  the  body  and   the  mind 

between  the  arms  of  the  Beloved, 

in  the  ecstasy  of  love's  joy : 
Bring  the  tearful  streams  of  the  rainy 

clouds    to   your   eyes,    and    cover 

your   heart   with   the   shadow    of 

darkness  : 
Bring  your  face  nearer  to  His  ear,  and 

speak  of  the  deepest  longings  of 

your  heart. 
Kabir  says:    "Listen  to  me,  brother! 

bring  the  vision  of  the  Beloved  in 

your  heart." 


T 


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the  king  for  the  hand  of  his  daughter.  Out  of  the  king's 
reply  and  the  conditions  which  he  imposes  upon  Arjuna 
the  story  develops.  It  is  a  rare  bit  of  idealistic  writing, 
as  beautiful  in  its  thought  as  it  is  in  expression. 

"We  did  not  look  for  an  Oriental  even  though  a  seer,  to 
write  a  book  (especially  twenty-five  years  ago  when  this 
was  written)  that  might  serve  as  example  to  the  most 
advanced  among  modern  Occidental  women — yet  this  is 
just  what  Tagore  has  done.  Extended  comment  upon 
Mr.  Tagore's  play  is  unnecessary.  It  is  at  once  as  clear 
and  as  profound  as  a  mountain  pool."    N.  Y.  Times. 


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Cloth,  i2mo.     $1.00  net. 

"...  filled  with  tender  pathos  and  spiritual  beauty.  There  are  two  acts, 
and  the  story  is  that  of  a  frail  little  Indian  lad  condemned  to  seclusion  and 
inaction  by  ill  health.  He  makes  a  new  world  for  himself,  however,  by  his 
imagination  and  insatiable  curiosity,  and  the  passersby  bring  the  world  of 
action  to  him.  The  play  has  been  presented  in  England  by  the  Irish  Players, 
and  fully  adapts  itself  to  the  charming  simplicity  and  charm  which  are  their 
principal  characteristics."    Phila.  Public  Ledger. 

"A  beautiful  and  appealing  piece  of  dramatic  work."    Boston  Transcript. 

"Once  more  Tagore  demonstrates  the  universality  of  his  genius;  once  more 
he  shows  how  art  and  true  feeling  know  no  racial  and  no  religious  lines." 
Kentucky  Post. 

"One  reads  in  'The  Post  Office'  his  own  will  of  symbolism.  Simplicity  and 
a  pervading,  appealing  pathos  are  the  qualities  transmitted  to  its  lines  by 
the  poet."   N.  Y.  World. 

"He  writes  from  his  soul;  there  is  neither  bombast  nor  didacticism.  His 
poems  bring  one  to  the  quiet  places  where  the  soul  speaks  to  the  soul  surely 
but  serenely."   N.  Y.  American. 


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OTHER  WORKS  BY 

RABINDRANATH  TAGORE 

Nobel  Prizeman  in  Literature,  IQ13 

GITANJALI  (Song  OSerings).    A  Collection  of  Prose  Translations  made  by 
the  author  from  the  original  Bengali.     New  Edition  $1.25  net 

THE  GARDENER.     Poems  of  Youth  $1.25  net 

THE  CRESCENT  MOON.    Child  Poems.     (Colored  111.)  $1.25  net 

SADHANA:  THE  REALIZATION  OF  LIFE.     A  volume  of 
essays  $1.25  net 

All  four  by  Rabindranath  Tagore,  translated  by  the  author  from  the 
original  Bengali. 

Rabindranath  Tagore  is  the  Hindu  poet  and  preacher  to  whom  the  Nobel 
Prize  was  recently  awarded.  .  .  . 

I  would  commend  these  volumes,  and  especially  the  one  entitled  "Sad- 
hana,"  the  collection  of  essays,  to  all  intelligent  readers.  I  know  of  nothing, 
except  it  be  Maeterlinck,  in  the  whole  modern  range  of  the  literature  of  the 
inner  life  that  can  compare  with  them. 

There  are  no  preachers  nor  writers  upon  spiritual  topics,  whether  in  Europe 
or  America,  that  have  the  depth  of  insight,  the  quickness  of  religious  apper- 
ception, combined  with  the  intellectual  honesty  and  scientific  clearness  of 
Tagore.  .  .  . 

Here  is  a  book  from  a  master,  free  as  the  air,  with  a  mind  universal  as  the 
sunshine.  He  writes,  of  course,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  Hindu.  But, 
strange  to  say,  his  spirit  and  teaching  come  nearer  to  Jesus,  as  we  find  Him 
in  the  Gospels,  than  any  modern  Christian  writer  I  know. 

He  does  for  the  average  reader  what  Bergson  and  Eucken  are  doing  for 
scholars;  he  rescues  the  soul  and  its  faculties  from  their  enslavement  to 
logic-chopping.  He  shows  us  the  way  back  to  Nature  and  her  spiritual 
voices. 

He  rebukes  our  materialistic,  wealth-mad,  Western  life  with  the  dignity 
and  authority  of  one  of  the  old  Hebrew  prophets.  .  .  . 

He  opens  up  the  meaning  of  life.  He  makes  us  feel  the  redeeming  fact  that 
life  is  tremendous,  a  worth-while  adventure.  "Everything  has  sprung  from 
immortal  life  and  is  vibrating  with  life.    LIFE  IS  IMMENSE."  .  .  . 

Tagore  is  a  great  human  being.  His  heart  is  warm  with  love.  His  thoughts 
are  pure  and  high  as  the  galaxy. 

(Copyright,  1913,  by  Frank  Crane.)  Reprinted  by  permission  from  the 
New  York  Globe,  Dec.  18,  1913. 


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The  Autobiography  of 
Devendranath  Tagore 

Translated  from  the  Original  Bengali  by 
SATYENDRANATH  TAGORE  and  INDIRA  DEVI 

With  an  Introduction  by  Evelyn  Underhill 

Cloth,  i2tno,  frontispiece,  $2.00  net 

11  This  book  is  one  more  amongst  the  small  number  of  authentic 
histories  of  the  soul;  it  must  rank  with  the  few  classic  autobiog- 
raphies bequeathed  to  us  by  certain  of  the  mystics  and  saints.  It 
is  essentially  of  the  same  class  as  the  Testament  of  Ignatius  Lo- 
yola, the  Journal  of  George  Fox.  The  whole  life  of  the  intricately- 
blended  human  creature  living  'eternal  life  in  the  midst  of  time' 
—  not  the  mere  factual  happenings,  not  alone  the  intuitions,  the 
meditations,  and  the  dreams,  but  the  whole  rich  complex  of  ele- 
ments both  finite  and  infinite,  the  growth  and  change,  the  slow 
becoming  of  the  soul  —  this  it  is  which  such  books  bring  home 
to  the  reader's  mind. 

***** 

"  Nothing  perhaps  could  contrast  more  strongly  with  the  nor- 
mal Western  idea  of  the  Indian  mystic  than  the  Maharshi's  long 
and  active  career,  the  character  of  the  vision  which  inspired  it, 
the  doctrine  which  he  taught.  The  Christian  promise  of  '  more 
abundant  life '  as  a  fruit  of  the  love  and  knowledge  of  God  has 
received  no  clearer  fulfilment.  His  missionary  labours,  his  ardu- 
ous and  enthusiastic  pilgrimages,  his  genius  for  friendship,  his 
deep  passion  for  nature,  his  sane  and  balanced  outlook  upon  hu- 
manity, his  intense  interest  in  the  events  of  his  time,  no  less  than 
the  ecstatic  life  of  contemplation  which  ran  side  by  side  with  his 
active  career  —  all  are  rooted  in  this.  He  was  no  amateur  of  a 
thin  and  rarefied  spirituality,  but  that  rare  creation,  a  whole 
man." 

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